BLOG: From Civic Pride to Managed Decline – Why we Must Fight Every Council Cut to Jobs & Services
Corinna Edwards-Colledge, Joint Branch Secretary
08/01/24
Despite Brighton & Hove City Council’s perilous financial situation we must fight every cut to jobs and services and here’s why:
As I was cycling through Preston Park this morning I stopped by the beautiful clock tower, built in 1891 by the Recreation Committee of Brighton Borough Council. Arriving a few minutes later at Brighton Town Hall, where UNISON has its offices, I reflected that that building is another wonderful example of a time when civic pride, and investment in the city was something everyone could see every day. Of course, there were rank inequalities in the 1900’s, and a much less progressive society than now, but burgeoning local government and local democracy over the last 200 years has played a vital part in our nation’s progress towards us becoming a modern, inclusive, largely tolerant society.
This civic pride, this growth of local government to provide not only a safety net for the most vulnerable, but also to promote economic growth, education, cultural and artistic opportunities and strong local identity have now been replaced by managed decline. This is almost exclusively down to 13 years of austerity policies, increased demand and the slashing of government funding to councils. England is also already one of the most centralised countries in Europe in terms of the powers and resources that have been taken from local government and put in the hands of national government. And that’s only going to get worse, with Brighton & Hove, along with one in four local authorities sending out the warning signal that bankruptcy may be looming.
In light of this, I’m not surprised when our members express concerns about fighting for jobs, pay and services in light of the council’s perilous financial situation, but it is exactly because of the current crisis that we must!
Cutting jobs and services at the city council is a false economy and it will be you, me and our families that pay the price further down the line. These cuts, as all those that went before them over the last 13 years will lead to more health inequalities (already responsible for 1m premature deaths nationally each year) more mental and physical health issues, more homelessness, more demands on social care and will have a knock-on effect on local business as well as the hospitality, arts and cultural sectors. Ask any social worker or care worker in Brighton & Hove about their experiences over the last decade, and they will tell you that they have spent it largely mopping up the damage caused by previous cuts as they witness increased demand and people exhibiting greater and more complex needs while their resources to support these people have been shrinking.
If we keep accepting less, both in terms of our pay, and the services that our council provides, we will get less. It’s that simple. If we don’t hold the line who will? If we don’t stand up for our jobs, and pay and our services and say any cuts are unacceptable, how will we win the argument for better investment in the future?
It is beholden on those of us who remember better times to fight for them to return. If we let go of that, future generations will not even be aware of what has been taken from them and it will be the city’s children and young people who suffer the most.
We must win the political and economic argument collectively as citizens of this city, with the public, trade unions, community groups, religious leaders, local employers and progressive politicians standing together to demand immediate re-investment in local government. To do this we must dismantle the lie that there is no money. Central government found an extra £400bn to spend during the pandemic. It would cost a fraction of that to lift local councils out of their immediate crisis and fund an inflation meeting pay rise for local government workers. And that’s even before we get on to the fact that the richest people and corporations QUADRUPLED their wealth over the last 20 years.
Labour needs to step up, and it needs to step up now: nationally the party is parroting the widely discredited economic ideology that running the government is like balancing a bank account. That simply isn’t true. There is considerable evidence that higher public investment boosts economic growth, just look at what we achieved after WWII and the immense impact that the NHS and social housing had on social mobility, reducing levels of ill-health and cultural and economic growth. Labour did that with national debt levels more than double what they are now – and those debt levels declined rapidly as the country then went on to recover.
There is no growth without hope! If there is a Labour government in power in the autumn they need to understand that you don’t grow your economy or lift people up if they are impoverished, anxious, unwell and desperate. We already live in a country where mass poverty has become normalised, and that must be addressed before anything else.
So if you find yourself questioning if you should stand up for your job, better pay, or to save a service that the council is looking at cutting because it may put them in further financial difficulty, please take a moment and consider what the consequences are if you don’t. Not just for yourself, but for everyone who relies on the services our council provides to live their life with dignity.
It’s now or never to hold the line, stand together and put a ring of protection around our declining public services and jobs in the city and say ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. If not now, when? If not you, who?