Residents for Uttlesford (R4U) is making changes in the way investments are undertaken at UDC. This is part of increased cross-party working to protect vital council funding and services.
John Lodge (R4U)£3.5m/year in government austerity cuts for UDC
R4U’s Cllr John Lodge, the UDC Council Leader, said “This is a crucial time for UDC as we prepare next years’ budget and work to solve a big funding problem that we inherited. The Westminster government have left a ticking time bomb in local council finances across the country. They continue to pretend to be shaking the Magic Money Tree, but behind the scenes they are slashing council funding. Their ‘stealth austerity’ programme is cutting grants and not giving UDC a fair share of business rates. These cuts will leave UDC short by £3.5 million a year. Many councils, such as UDC, can only make up the huge shortfall by generating income from property investments.”
R4U committed to fixing funding gap
Cllr Lodge added “R4U has committed to residents to fix the financial gap at UDC as we did previously with the £1m financial blackhole left at Saffron Walden Town Council in 2015. Our approach to UDC’s investment strategy is twofold: we need to increase income from investments at the same time as reducing the risk to the taxpayer; and we need stronger independent governance and expertise. That is why R4U set up a new all-party Investment Board onto which we are bringing independent external investment experts.”
New Investment Board to bring more accountablility
The Investment Board is a brand new working group set up by R4U at UDC to specifically increase governance and transparency. It is also tasked with reducing the risks associated with the Council’s investment activities. Previously it was not clear to residents how the former Conservative administration made investment decisions. This new working group also specifically includes members from all political parties to increase democracy and accountability.
At the recent Investment Board meeting the Greens resigned from the working group. This was after their political leader at UDC was not elected by other group members to lead the interview panel tasked with screening applicants for the new independent external Board member seats. The Greens are a minority party at UDC, only polling 3% of the district vote in the previous local election. It would have been surprising for them to lead the interview panel.
R4U’s John Lodge said “This is a vital time for council service funding so it is disappointing that the Green councillors have decided that they do not want to participate in the Investment Board unless they lead things. This should not be about their personal egos. I firmly believe that council working groups and committees should include representation from every party, ideally on a democratic basis that is proportional to the number of councillors they have.”
Unanimous cross-party action to balance budget
Cllr Lodge concluded “Meanwhile at the most recent Investment Board meeting there was unanimous and positive cross-party agreement to bolster investments to balance the budget. In terms of process, the Board is a cabinet working group, and so doesn’t make individual investment decisions. Any final decision is made by the full council, where councillors from all parties vote. That is part of making it democratic, transparent and accountable. Through investment activities at UDC, and other actions, R4U is committed to working for residents with all parties to close the huge government funding gap.”