At its all-out local elections on May 6th London could finally rid itself of Labour’s divide-and-rule politics, with Conservative boroughs and Mayor Boris Johnson bringing joined-up policies and substantial savings to the Capital and to Londoners.
For years, Labour has thought London was theirs by right. But since 2006, the sixteen Conservative-led boroughs – and more recently, Boris – have shown that waste can be cut, essential services protected and invested in and at the same time, council tax can be cut or frozen. In that period nearly £500 million has been saved by London’s Conservative councils focussing on essential local priorities, making them the highest performers in local government. This record even forced Labour-led councils to do a deal at their party conference last year and announce that they would follow the Conservative lead and freeze council tax.
But under Labour, London – the nation’s economic powerhouse – has got a poor deal year after year. Ministers crow about increasing funding by 4% nationally this year but most boroughs never got a whiff of this, receiving the minimum 1.5% as they did last year and the year before.
Neither does the Freedom Pass concessionary transport scheme for the elderly seem to matter to Labour any more. Funding had been agreed for three years through to 2011 but a couple of months ago Sadiq Khan, the Transport Minister and MP for Tooting, reneged on the deal and cut nearly £30 million from the scheme, leaving boroughs to find the money just as their budgets were being finalised.
And worst of all, despite launches at No 10 and endless words and initiatives, the Labour government has failed to reduce child poverty in London since 2000 despite the economic boom that has now been squandered.
But Boris and the Conservative boroughs are now leading the way. Post Livingstone, London boroughs and city government are now working together to find ways to join up local services, making them simpler to use and cutting public waste at the same time. The residents of boroughs that turned blue four years ago have already found the benefit in their wallets and in the services they use daily from stripping out the waste of past Labour administrations.
As the local campaign starts, our job is to convince more Londoners that voting Conservative delivers accountable, transparent councils that cost them less whilst improving essential local services. The record of the current Conservative boroughs provides ample evidence.