Positive message from Sheffield despite Central Govt.

Sheffield City Council has just adopted a budget that may shed up to 400 jobs after another £50million was stripped from its budget taking the total amount to over £350 million in the last 6 years.

I asked Councillor Ben Curran, Cabinet Member for Finance & Resources about it. “We are now in year 6 of George Osbourne’s 4 year austerity plan”, Councillor Curran said, “There is absolutely a systematic approach to target poorer Norther communities, particularly those with Labour Councils.”

He emphasised the point by saying that there was no business case for moving BIS (department for business innovation and skills) to London, relocating 200 well paid, skilled jobs from the city. “It’s not just about cuts but others decisions too – like moving BIS jobs from Sheffield to London. We need to make people aware of it and build a campaign on it- jobs for Sheffield”.
 

The new round of cuts will undoubtedly mean that even with the best will in the world there will be cuts in services and the very most vulnerable people in the city will be at risk as a result.

I wanted to know if it was all bad news.

“Austerity hurts. We’ve reduced our spending by £350 million since 2010 in the wake of government cuts. But there is some good news. We’ve managed the finances well and are projecting a small surplus at year end.  This enabled us to make a really positive announcement on the Living Wage. It’s an important part of an inclusive economy something that we have a strong record on. We pay our staff the Living Wage and are using our contracts to boost the wages of hundreds of people across Sheffield. Our budget built on that good work. I was proud to announce a Living Wage rate relief that would help employers to pay the proper Living Wage. We know there are a number of employers in the city who want to do the right thing and need a little help. I was amazed that the Greens, Lib Dems and UKIP joined forces to block it. Luckily there are more Labour councillors it passed. It highlights the importance of a Labour administration in the city.”

With the all-out local elections just around the corner I asked Councillor Curran if he thought Labour would be punished for the cuts in the budget and retraction in services or if the people of Sheffield are wise enough to know who is to blame and re-elect a Labour controlled council. He was confident that most people believe Labour are doing their best and is quietly confident that Labour will hold a majority. It has been reported that some local councils will need to move services like bin collections to monthly services to save money but Councillor Curran told me Sheffield will not be doing that saying “we have no plans for bin collection to be made less frequently”.

I asked Mr Curran, councillor for Walkley, if Labour could be credible without a proper plan to tackle immigration. He disagreed with my suggestion stating that lessons were learned after the last election and Labour knows it has to talk about the issues that matter to people. Having chatted over a cup of Yorkshire tea and healthy sized slab of Chocolate cake from a local independent café for over an hour with Councillor Curran, I would urge the people of Sheffield to keep faith with him and the local Labour party. I was reassured by his answers that he will do all he can to ensure Sheffield gets the best deal it can despite the ideological cuts being relentlessly enforced on him and us. I believed him when he said a labour council will do its utmost to protect the vulnerable adults and children of the city.