Croydon Green Councillors Ria Patel and Esther Sutton have written this open letter to Michael Gove concerning Mayor Perry’s plan to raise Council Tax by 15% and cut Council services
Green Councillor Group,
Croydon Town Hall
Katharine Street
Croydon
CR0 1NX
03 March 2023
Open Letter from Croydon Green Councillors to the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
Dear Mr Gove,
We are writing to ask you to reconsider your decision to allow Mayor Perry to raise Council Tax in Croydon by 15% and for you to fund Croydon fairly to protect our vital council services and protect those people suffering the most during this cost of living crisis.
Croydon has been blighted by over a decade of bad decisions, dodgy deals, and secret contracts made by Councillors and enabled by senior officers. These were done without the knowledge or approval of Croydon residents.
We are now being told that another deal is being done between your Department and Mayor Perry that is forcing Croydon Residents to pay for the mess made by Councillors’ bad decisions, while cutting services even more, and without residents having any opportunity to say whether they agree. This is neither fair nor democratic.
We note that many local authorities are facing the worst funding crisis in their history caused by massive funding shortfalls. Attempts to address these shortfalls by allowing increased council tax will fail to raise anywhere near the sums needed.
Croydon has also suffered due to the funding formula that means Croydon receives far less central Government funding per resident than other London Boroughs even though Croydon faces the same issues as those other Boroughs.
It makes no economic, social or environmental sense to leave Croydon Council in a position where it will continue to struggle and fail to deliver the basic services that people rightly expect and deserve. This is particularly true at the moment when your Government’s decision to allow energy companies to raise prices far beyond any reasonable level has left so many people struggling to meet their needs.
For Croydon Council to serve local people in the way they deserve and give them hope for the future we need proper funding to invest in a fairer, greener, and healthier future.
In order to do this effectively, we request that you:
- Restore central Government funding to the levels required for Croydon Council to provide necessary services on a sustainable footing.
- Guarantee that funding will increase at least in line with inflation in coming years to ensure that the Council can pay its staff fairly and effectively plan for future service delivery.
- Review the funding formula that currently provides far less funding to Croydon than other equivalent London Boroughs
- At a minimum provide the extra funding needed to reduce this year’s Council Tax rise to below the 5% threshold set for other Councils
- Ensure any settlement with Mayor Perry includes sufficient money for an effective hardship fund to protect those unable to meet the extra costs of a Council Tax rise.
At the time of writing over 25,000 have already signed the petition opposing Mayor Perry’s 15% Council Tax rise and we know from our conversations with local residents how angry they are at the plan to make them pay for other’s mistakes.
We urge you to listen to the residents of Croydon and act so that you can support us in striving to protect the most vulnerable people and build Croydon into a thriving social and economic success as we recover from this crisis.
Yours sincerely,
Ria Patel and Esther Sutton
Councillors for Fairfield Ward, Croydon Council