Financially troubled Nottingham City Council has ‘let down’ residents – Sunak
The Prime Minister claimed that financial difficulties at Labour-run authorities mirrored how the party would run the national economy.
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Your support makes all the difference.Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said that Nottingham City Council has “let down its residents” after it stated it is effectively bankrupt.
Mr Sunak also neither confirmed nor denied whether commissioners would be sent into the financially troubled authority, which issued a section 114 notice in November last year after deeming it could not deliver a balanced budget.
Speaking at a youth centre in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire on Thursday, Mr Sunak said that the situation in Nottingham mirrored how Labour would run the national economy if they won the next general election, which the Prime Minister earlier said he believed would take place in the “second half” of this year.
Responding to a question from the Nottingham Post about whether commissioners would be sent in, he said: “There’s a well-established process for resolving situations like this that involves independent external commissioners being sent in.
The Labour-run Nottingham City Council has essentially bankrupted itself and it's let down its residents here, and they've done that because they've made a series of poor decisions, including Robin Hood Energy, which everyone will remember
“But you have to ask the question, but why are they being sent in? They’re being sent in because the Labour-run Nottingham City Council has essentially bankrupted itself and it’s let down its residents here, and they’ve done that because they’ve made a series of poor decisions, including Robin Hood Energy, which everyone will remember.
“The contrast between that and the Conservative-run Nottinghamshire County Council is clear.
“You have to make difficult decisions to run things responsibly, but that’s what Nottinghamshire County Council are doing led by Conservatives and more generally, it just illustrates the contrast between Conservatives and Labour when we’re in power.
“You can trust me, the Conservatives, you can trust Ben (Bradley, MP for Mansfield and leader of Nottinghamshire County Council) and his colleagues to run things responsibly.”
The city council has been approached for comment.
Mr Sunak said that cuts to National Insurance, which come into force on Saturday, were one of the results of “responsible decision-making”.
He said that in contrast, financial difficulties in Labour-run councils mirrored what would happen to the national economy if Labour won the next general election.
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities said last month that it was “minded” to send commissioners into Nottingham City Council, which is facing a £23 million overspend this year and a £50 million budget gap for 2024-25.
The council has already launched a public consultation over service cuts to balance its books.
It said that its Revenue Support Grant from the government has reduced by £97 million every year since 2013-14, with its “Core Spending Power” reducing by 28.2% in real terms compared to 19.4% for all councils in England, according to figures from the Special Interest Group of Municipal Authorities.
In a letter sent last month to Sir Tony Redmond, the chair of the council’s government-appointed Improvement and Assurance Board (IAB), Simon Hoare, the local government minister, said the council was “continuing to fail to comply with its best value duty”.
The council said that it would work with commissioners if they were appointed, and has previously said that it can meet its obligations in the current financial year.
Parties were invited to make submissions to the Levelling Up Secretary, Michael Gove, by Tuesday, with a decision to be made after that date.
Mr Sunak also said on Thursday that the government was not responsible for the financial difficulties faced by the council, adding that they were caused by “clear mismanagement”.
Responding to a question from Global Radio about whether the government was to blame, he said: “That’s just simply not what the situation is.
“You had very clear mismanagement by a Labour-run council and that’s why they‘re in bankruptcy. Robin Hood Energy (a failed council energy scheme) is a case in point, that was not a government idea, that was something that the local councillors, the Labour councillors, wanted to do, which has ended up costing people money locally.
“The contrast, as I said, (is) Nottinghamshire County Council is doing a good job for its residents here.
They’ve let down people here locally, and actually the decent thing would be to accept responsibility for that and take accountability for it and not try and pass the buck
“Actually since I became Chancellor and as Prime Minister, we put more and more money every year into local government, particularly in social care actually, where there is probably the pressure that councils feel most acutely and we’ve put record funding into that as a result from government to help with some of those pressures.
“So this is down, pure and simple, to local mismanagement by the Labour-run council and actually, you know what they should do is to take responsibility for that rather than trying to blame everybody else.
“They’ve let down people here locally, and actually the decent thing would be to accept responsibility for that and take accountability for it and not try and pass the buck.”