How Our Alternative Budget Will Fix Southwark
The Southwark Liberal Democrats have unveiled their alternative budget proposals for 2025, promising to invest in care, community safety, the cost of living, and frontline council services. Running through the alternative budget is a theme of empowering communities, and giving local people more say over how the council spends money and makes decisions.
The Labour-run council is set to formally approve its second year of a three-year budget agreed last year – but the Liberal Democrats say that the administration’s proposals are “disappointing” and a “wasted opportunity”.
The opposition’s proposals have been fully costed and will be voted on at the meeting on the 26th February.
A Fairer, More Caring Southwark:
Following a historic General Election result for the Liberal Democrats’ nationally, the Southwark group are set to bring a local angle to Ed Davey’s campaigning on care. They will invest £1 million into Southwark’s care service, specifically to enable the creation of Integrated Neighbourhood Teams. This initiative is being encouraged across the country, but so far there has been no money being provided to ensure this is done properly.
Recognising that the Cost of Living remains a top priority for residents, the Lib Dems are also proposing to invest a further £200,000 into the Southwark Cost of Living Fund, and freezing council tax for those who are most struggling to make ends meet.
They will fund these initiatives by cutting top jobs for Labour councillors, scaling back wasteful back office spend, and reprioritising pots of money sitting in the council’s coffers.
A cleaner, safer Southwark:
Crime and anti-social behaviour is on the rise, and London’s police and crime commissioner Sadiq Khan has not been able to confirm that he will meet his promises on Police staffing numbers. The Liberal Democrats are pledging invest £2 million to help make Southwark safer. With this money they say they can double the number of community safety officers and invest in a range of measures, from CCTV cameras to safe space gazebos.
Following on from years of campaigning on the issue of flytipping, the alternative budget will abolish the bulky waste collection charge and roll out “community skips” to make it easier to dispose of large items responsibly.
These will all be paid for by cutting back on agency and consultancy spend and pioneering a tourist tax, following from reports of Manchester’s raising of millions of pounds with a similar initiative.
Backing Communities:
Finally, the Liberal Democrats will propose to take council services back into the heart of communities by rolling out One Stop Shops. They say that this will lead to longer term savings as issues will be able to be addressed much sooner with more accessible council officers.
In a radical move aiming to show how they would approach broader reform, they make provision for a local devolution agenda, aiming to give local communities the tools to make their own decisions about what, where, and when things happen in their area.
The money for this will be found by abolishing so-called “community champions” and increasing levies on developers.
Commenting, Cllr Victor Chamberlain said:
“The Labour administration’s budget is a disappointing, wasted opportunity that fails to address the real challenges our residents face. At a time when the cost of living crisis continues to bite, crime and anti-social behaviour are on the rise, and local services are under increasing strain, Southwark deserves better.
Our alternative budget once again puts residents first by investing in the right places – tackling crime, the cost of living, and putting front line services into communities.
Labour are happy to leave money on the table and waste taxpayers cash. Only the Liberal Democrats want to put money back into peoples pockets, make Southwark safer, and deliver better services for residents”.
Note
Draft alternative budget found below