Published: Wednesday, 28th February 2024
By Councillor Arooj Shah, Leader of Oldham Council
In 2012, I entered politics to make a difference.
Driven by a passion to get things done, I want to provide new opportunities, to support and enhance services, to help ‘level the playing field’ for residents and local businesses, and to see life get better here in my hometown.
These ambitions still burn in me, and they are at the heart of the Labour administration I lead in the Town Hall today.
But throughout my time as a councillor, I have only known cuts to Oldham’s budget.
In the decade or so I have been a councillor, we have seen more than £230million of budget cuts as Government funding falls in real terms, pushing that responsibility on to residents through regressive council tax hikes and charges and burdening the poorest in our society with higher costs.
Nearly a quarter of a billion pounds in cuts is a staggering amount and, of course, it impacts every service, every project, and most importantly, every resident.
It also reflects national trends and challenges we face.
First, the unfairness of the Government’s funding formula for local councils which has protected some of the wealthiest authorities at the expense of others, and secondly, it fails to recognise the increase in demand for services to protect the elderly, the youngest and the most vulnerable in our community.
For some councils these pressures have proven too much, and they have had to issue Section 114 notices stating they are unable to balance their budget for the financial year - effectively declaring themselves bankrupt. I’ll not allow Oldham to follow that path.
Tonight, my colleagues and I will be setting a balanced budget for Oldham.
It means making some tough choices. Once again, our hopes and aspirations must be tempered because of national failure and crises. Once again, we are forced to pick up the challenge of these national problems with our local solutions.
In Oldham, we are facing the impact of the national crisis in social care, feeling the problems created by the housing crisis and, as Westminster’s mismanagement of the economy has pushed inflation and borrowing costs higher, seeing the goods and services we all rely on cost much more year-over-year.
Protecting our youngest residents is a core responsibility of every council everywhere.
The Local Government Association – the body which represents all UK councils of all political persuasion – warns that the cost of providing children’s services is up 14% compared to last year – that’s £1.5billion nationwide.
Sadly, as households struggle to balance their own budgets, we are seeing some families simply overwhelmed by the challenge of caring for their children and, heartbreakingly, the council has to step in and take these youngsters into its care.
The number of children entering care is growing, and at the same time the cost of each child in care is rising too – in some case tenfold.
As your local authority we must respond to these challenges – if not us, who else?
We are building new children’s homes and looking to recruit new foster families, but this makes a huge demand on our resources today to deal with a problem which shows little sign of abating over the long term.
The crisis is repeated in adult social care too.
As our population ages and people live longer, the demand for social services and care to keep our eldest residents safe, happy and healthy is booming too.
Care packages are going up in price too. For some individuals with the most pressing needs the cost has risen to nearly £400,000 a year.
We are all aware of the failures of the market to provide affordable, quality, and sustainable adult social care, causing bottle necks in hospital admissions and discharges. Only last year, Oldham Council had to step in to stop one of the largest private residential and nursing homes in the Borough from financial collapse, safeguarding hundreds of residents and dozens of vital carer’s jobs. Again, it was absolutely the right thing to do, but places yet another strain on our finances.
Then there is the housing crisis. Everyone should have a decent and affordable home but too many of our residents do not enjoy that basic right. The sell off and transfer of former council and public sector homes into the private sector without replacing them with adequate numbers of new affordable homes has pushed housing out of reach of many families – especially younger ones – here in Oldham and across the nation.
Despite Government pledges to make changes, landlords can still issue ‘no fault evictions’ stripping tenants of the stability and certainty we all value in our homes, and the bite of the cost-of-living crisis means more residents aren’t able to meet their mortgage payments, pay their utility bills or struggle to make their rent.
At the sharp end of the crisis, the spend on homelessness services across the country is up 20% according to the LGA. In Oldham we are feeling the impact of this too, with more than 500 households - with nearly 500 children - living in temporary accommodation. This is both unacceptable and unsustainable.
We are doing everything we can to get the new homes we need built. Following our Housing Roundtable with key players in the region, we announced plans with our partners to build thousands of new properties across the borough, including 500 new social housing units.
So, tonight is about setting a balanced budget. One that deals with the headwinds I have identified above but starts to show a path forward.
The administration I lead will not be beaten by the Government’s failure to live up to its promises or to uphold its part of the responsibilities we share. We remain a financially prudent authority and have maintained adequate reserves, like households do with their savings, so the budget we present sees Oldham protect the most vital services our residents rely on.
This budget is also about meeting the values we hold highest – meeting the needs of the most vulnerable in our community and securing the services which are literally the difference between life and death for many of our residents.
But it is also one which looks to a brighter future for Oldham. One with new homes, improved infrastructure, greater education and job opportunities for our children, and the continued enhancements and improvements to our town centre, parks and public spaces which will play such a vital role in making Oldham an even better place to live and work.