Conservatives have cut Crawley’s funding by more than half

Three weeks ahead of the Spring Budget, new analysis from Crawley Labour highlights the devastating cut in funding to Crawley’s local council under the Conservatives.

In 2010, under Labour, Crawley Borough Council had funding for local services of £22.6m – the equivalent of £33.4m in today’s prices. Yet today, after years of cuts – and the devastating inflation brought on when the Conservatives crashed the British economy – Crawley Borough Council operates on just £15.1m, a real-terms cut of 55%.

Even after the Conservatives have required councils to hike up their council tax as part of the annual local government settlement, councils across much of the country have been left having to cut services back to the bear minimum.

Publishing the figures, Peter Lamb, Labour candidate for Crawley, has written to the Chancellor ahead of the Spring Budget to demand a fair deal for Crawley. The text of the letter is repeated below.

Dear Mr Hunt,

Under the Conservatives, Crawley has taken a battering. Low growth, stagnant wages, high prices and failing public services have been the story of the last 14 years. Over the last 18 months, the inflation your party unleashed with the reckless mini-budget has deepened the cost of living crisis, pushing many Crawley families beyond breaking point.

Yet still, the Conservative Party refuses to give Crawley a fair deal, with local councils forced to operate on budgets in real-terms far smaller than that they received under the last Labour Government.

Even as the Conservatives have baked-in the maximum council tax increase into the Local Government Settlement, we still face tough decisions in order to deliver a balanced budget. This, coupled with an out of control demand for temporary housing which the government has failed to even attempt to address, is creating a local authority funding crisis the likes of which the country has never previously experienced.

This budget is your final chance to help to fix the problem your Government has caused and to enable us to protect the services communities like Crawley depend upon. I hope you won’t let the community down.

Yours sincerely,

Peter Lamb
Labour candidate for Crawley.