Labour’s Council Leader Chris Read has today written to the new Chancellor to stand up for Rotherham – and insist our community shouldn’t pay the price for the economic crisis made in Downing Street.

On Monday 17 October, the fourth Chancellor in four months, Jeremy Hunt announced plans to cut public spending following the disastrous mini-budget, with the vital services provided by our local council expected to be in the firing line on 17^th November.

Media reports suggest that the Conservative government will be seeking to cut public spending and increase taxes by as much as £60 billion, with many reports suggesting that spending cuts will be the priority.

At the same time, Rotherham Council has outlined its financial projection for the next two years, showing a £10 million shortfall in council funding next year – composed entirely of the national pay award for local government staff, inflation and energy costs – factors beyond the council’s control. Previously, the council had a balanced budget plan for the next two years. The £10 million figure is before any further reductions in central government grant.

Nationally the Local Government Association has estimated that increases in the national living wage and higher energy costs had already added at least £2.4bn in extra costs onto the budgets that councils set back in March this year.

Labour’s Cllr Chris Read is today writing to the Chancellor to insist that the Conservatives in Downing Street clean up their own mess without hammering families in Rotherham.

Cllr Read said;

“The Tories have already forced £200 million of cuts onto Rotherham Council over the last 12 years. For most of that time they told us it was necessary to get the national deficit down, until Liz Truss decided that it’s OK to run up a deficit so long as it’s to pay for tax cuts for the highest income earners. The mask slipped. It simply cannot be right when mortgages and rents are rising, energy bills have spiralled, that the government decides its ordinary people in Rotherham who should pay the price for their incompetence. It’s the very young and the very old, the most vulnerable, who are hit hardest by cuts to public services.”

He added;

“No one was even talking about spending cuts before the Tories tanked the economy. We need the government to be filling in the gaps being left by inflation, but instead councils across the country are now braced for further cuts. Councillors are legally required to set balanced budgets each year but communities like ours have already paid a heavy price over the last decade. The prospect of more to come is grim.”