- 11 hours ago
Catch up with all the latest political news across the county with Chloe Brewster.
This week we were joined by two Medway councillors, Andrew Lawrence from Medway First, and Mark Jones from Labour and Co-operative to talk about Medway Council's finances, and later joined by Cllr Amelia Randall of the Balanced Britain Party to discuss the rise of new parties in Kent.
This week we were joined by two Medway councillors, Andrew Lawrence from Medway First, and Mark Jones from Labour and Co-operative to talk about Medway Council's finances, and later joined by Cllr Amelia Randall of the Balanced Britain Party to discuss the rise of new parties in Kent.
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TVTranscript
01:00And what can an £82 million deficit mean for next year's budget?
01:03Our local democracy reporter Megan Shaw has more.
01:06An unexceptional cabinet meeting from Medway Council confirming that further exceptional government support is not off the table.
01:15Medway Council has already used over £60 million in EFS.
01:20That's exceptional financial support from the government to help cover day-to-day spending over the last three years.
01:27But there might be more to come.
01:29The Unitary Authority expects a £360 million shortfall over the next five years
01:35and is expected to overspend an additional £26 million by the end of this financial year.
01:41When we're spending £1.35 million every single day on effectively three services,
01:47adult social care, children's services and temporary accommodation,
01:51the vast majority of Medway residents, thankfully, don't have to access those services.
01:57They are accessed by a relatively small amount, but the impact is great across our community.
02:01This year's budget implemented controversial income generation strategies like higher car park tariffs and hiking up council tax.
02:10Could we see these again?
02:12As always, we'll be looking as we move towards February at all of the options.
02:16So nothing's off the table yet.
02:18We'll always be looking at the options that we do on a regular basis.
02:21But former Conservative turned party trailblazer Andrew Lawrence is more wary.
02:26It's not £60 million to buy things, it's £60 million to balance the books.
02:30And the long-term projection for the next couple of years is another couple of hundred million.
02:35It's just out of control.
02:38Years of financial struggles and government support might be one thing,
02:42but in Medway, are residents bothered by that?
02:45And importantly, can they feel those years of financial shortfall?
02:49I think life carries on as normal in Medway.
02:52We don't really see the impact of the shortfall.
02:56I mean, the whole country's in debt.
02:59Obviously, eventually, we've got to cut our cloth according to what we can afford.
03:03I think there's elements of it you can see on the street in the sense of some of the cleanliness
03:07of the street.
03:08It doesn't seem to be as looked after as maybe it would be if they had the funds.
03:13We cancelled all the bins being emptied on a Sunday,
03:17which means the foxes get into all the detritus that's left on a Saturday night.
03:22And in the Castle Browns alone, it just looks like a tip.
03:25Medway Council's in a really difficult situation.
03:29One costs are actually going up.
03:31Government put more and more responsibilities on local authorities.
03:35It doesn't actually provide any extra money.
03:37But residents will need to wait until February to see if they'll be facing the brunt of the deficit.
03:44Megan Shaw in Medway.
03:47And with me now is Councillor Andrew Lawrence, leader of the new Medway First Party,
03:52and Labour's Councillor Mark Jones, both members of Medway Council.
03:56Now, Mark, I have to start with you there.
03:58We saw in that report the leader of your council promised exceptional financial support wouldn't be needed for another year.
04:04How can people trust an administration that breaks their promise?
04:10We're in a situation, as Councillor Maple said, where we've got to deliver adult social care,
04:19children's services, temporary accommodation support,
04:25and the financial circumstances of a country, international issues, that sort of thing,
04:30have an effect on things like borrowing costs.
04:34We have to deliver those services.
04:37And at the end of the day, we're trying to find new ways of working,
04:42new ways of delivering things like adult social care, more independent living,
04:46but we have to pay for things like private placements and what have you.
04:52And, you know, children with special educational needs need to be looked after.
04:58We've made representations to the government for more support.
05:03But you said you wouldn't.
05:04You said you wouldn't be asking for that extra support.
05:08As I say, the situation is ongoing in terms of the difficulties of borrowing,
05:15the Iraq war, international events.
05:18It may seem odd when people are talking about empty litter bags
05:23and that sort of thing to be commenting on these issues.
05:26But the fact of the matter is we do have the wider international issues
05:30and the effect of those to consider.
05:34Well, the Chartered Institute of Public Finance Accounting said earlier this year
05:38that you have been making efforts to improve your financial sustainability.
05:42But clearly, at the moment, things aren't sustainable the way they're going
05:46with the millions of pounds of difference that's going to be next year, the gap.
05:51As I say, we're looking at better ways of working, more independent living.
05:57In cases of children, we try to have special education needs facilities in pupil units
06:05or nearer to homes as we're not spending money on out-of-county placements and what have you.
06:10We're always looking for new ways of working.
06:13And anybody that's got ideas, we will listen.
06:16If Andrew has got a solution to these issues, you know, we'll hear what he has to say.
06:23Oh, he's laughing. What do you think?
06:24Well, I mean, unfortunately for Mark, he's here to defend the indefensible.
06:28You're absolutely right.
06:29Since January 2024, Vince has been saying,
06:32don't worry, it's all right, we're getting there, we're getting there.
06:35Then they call in SIPPA and that was supposed to be the shield
06:38that would give them the cover that they're actually making progress.
06:42But the reality is, after the Cabinet meeting on Tuesday,
06:45which was an absolute... I just sit in there open mouth.
06:49It's everyone else's fault.
06:51There is no accountability.
06:52And it's only 60 million quid.
06:54You know, not that it's not costing us three million pounds a year
06:57to finance that debt, let alone pay it back.
07:01You know, to put it into context,
07:02this council's got to refinance 150 million pounds of debt this year.
07:06But you were part of the Conservatives, though.
07:07Didn't you pass on that deficit originally?
07:09No, because I wasn't elected in the previous administration.
07:11I was elected in 2023.
07:12So I'm here as a councillor.
07:15When I became a councillor, there was no deficit,
07:19there was no emergency financial support.
07:21What we now have is probably three, four, five years of emergency financial support
07:26and no plan to get us out of it.
07:28I've got a bit of a theory here.
07:30I actually think the Labour group were going to carry on the way they're going
07:34because local government reorganisation was coming along
07:37and at that point it would be someone else's problem,
07:39i.e. this new North Kent authority.
07:41And it's not the Iran war that's the problem.
07:44It's the way we fund local government.
07:47And the really worrying thing is,
07:49and I'm going to be raising this with the leader at the next four council meeting,
07:53is Andy Burnham wants to take even more money away from the south-east
07:56and redistribute it to the north.
07:59What's that going to do for our financial position?
08:01What do you say to that?
08:03Well, of course, we get to see what is in the Chancellor's budget in a few weeks' time
08:08and, you know, Andrew's crystal ball is just as good as mine.
08:12But I say that, as I said before,
08:15if Andrew has got ideas as to how we deal with this issue,
08:20you know, if he's going to be able to manage all these things,
08:25keep parking charges down, keep borrowing down and all that sort of thing,
08:29how is he going to balance the books?
08:31So he has to come up with ideas and solutions to these issues.
08:38And we're working very hard, contrary to what Andrew says,
08:41the Labour and Co-op group are working very hard to try and balance the books.
08:46Yeah, well, it's a massive E-minus for effort
08:49and E-minus for results, Mark, unfortunately.
08:52I mean, the bottom line here is it appears to me
08:55that Vince Maple has zero credibility with national government.
09:00He's been ignored on local government reorganisation.
09:03And if he's making representations to get more money into Medway, he's being ignored again.
09:08So I'm just wondering, you know, whether we need to open an office Medway in the north
09:12so we're closer to where government now is in order to gain any leverage.
09:18Let's put this money into context.
09:20The £60 million requires to pay that, to get that back to a zero position.
09:25Not pay it back, just a zero balance.
09:27We've got to raise council tax by 30%.
09:30That's the thing.
09:31And I think people out there don't realise that this is money that's being borrowed on their behalf
09:37and they're going to have to pay it back.
09:40That's the key.
09:41Unless the government stump up this £60 million in extra grant, that's the reality.
09:48Well, the audience who are watching now, they might be listening to this and thinking,
09:52what is this going to do to my pocket?
09:54I mean, Vince didn't rule out the income generating policies going forward.
09:59Will they be hiking up parking charges?
10:02Will he be raising council tax again?
10:04What's his plan?
10:06There are no easy solutions to all this.
10:08If anybody comes along and says, you know, we can keep parking charges as they are
10:13and keep other charges as they are and still balance the budget.
10:17On Andrew's council tax predictions, our reckoning certainly isn't 30%.
10:25At the moment in the figures that came to Cabinet, the budget is for a 3% increase.
10:31But that's a prediction, not a certainty.
10:34Obviously, we'll have to look at that as the time comes.
10:36But it's no use frightening people.
10:39Andrew says, I'm blaming everybody else.
10:42He seems to be blaming Councillor Maple for all this.
10:46At the end of the day, people have got to come up with answers
10:49as to how we are going to manage the pressures in things like adult social care,
10:56children's services, paying for placements for people, all these things.
11:01We're trying to come up with new ways of working.
11:03We're trying to come up with solutions to those.
11:05Let's put 3% in context.
11:083% is £6 million.
11:10So if council tax goes up 3%, that's £6 million.
11:14That's not even the rate of inflation.
11:16So all of that money being collected will be going to just continuing services
11:21and to pay the inflation on those services, staff pay rises.
11:24The only way Medway Labor are going to get out of this problem
11:27is for the government to write a very, very large cheque
11:30because they have shown themselves incapable of solving the problems.
11:33It's all very well for Mark to ask me for my ideas.
11:36I'm a single councillor who doesn't have the full weight of the council machine behind him.
11:42We're here, and I'm saying, Mark, what is the plan?
11:45Tell the people watching this show what is the plan
11:48to deal with the £60 million budget deficit that's been accrued so far
11:52plus the money that's likely to be accrued in the next couple of years
11:55because you cannot hide behind local government reorganisation.
11:59Now, if you haven't got a plan, don't criticise anyone else.
12:02Go away, get a plan and come and sell it.
12:04Right, we just have to cut you off there so we can go to a break.
12:07Thank you so much, guys.
12:09So we have time for, but join us after this break.