BUDGET SPEECH 2010

Budget Council is the opportunity that Councillors have to review the performance of this Administration - its financial and business dealings over the last year and to have a say in the financial planning and management for the coming year.

This Council for the past year and more - in relation to its management of the Council - and thus its financial management has put all its eggs in one basket - the One Council Project.

Let me say at once that we approve of the concept of the project and there are things in this budget that we in the circumstances would approve. However it must be emphasised that the Council’s financial position is not one we are happy to find ourselves in. Under a Conservative Administration things would have been much different. Over the last four years we would have dealt with things differently.

For example we take issue with is the length of time that this administration has taken to actually get on with the project.

They have dithered.

Whether this is because of a real lack of political will is hard to say - we have been told about resistance to the project within the Liberal Democrat Group. There is a great deal of change required for success in a project of this nature. Perhaps this is why it has taken them so long to get on with it. Perhaps this is why the drive and ambition in the project was not ignited for such a long time.

I am pleased to say that I believe effective Scrutiny and advice from the Opposition has helped to get the project where it is today – and that is still not far enough.

I warned in my first Budget Speech that they needed to get on with re-organising the Council – the clues were all there – traditional salami slicing of budgets would no longer suffice – radical reorganising and rethinking about how the Council operates was required - the interim Head of Environmental Services had started to give a lead – an example – he started the reorganisation of that Department – he axed his own job – too much management at the top – more emphasis to be put on service and value for money. We approved of that. .

Unbelievably however that project – reorganising Environmental Services is still going on within the One Council Project – it was the sort of prototype for One Council – it is still not completed – far too much dithering.

Two of the One Council Projects announced in a blaze of expensive publicity - the IT and Asset Programmes are hardly started. IT is now belatedly off the ground but the asset project still dormant – no life – again just too much dithering.

We should have been saving £500,000 on IT this year not £250,000 as now suggested in the budget and we should be much closer to savings in the Asset Management Project than we are.

Dithering in the last twelve months has already been identified as costing this Council at least £2million in the opportunity to save that money through the One Council Programme. The losses in opportunity to save through the project being poorly managed is continuing and under this Administration I have no confidence that it will improve.

The reality of course is that it is not the Council that loses this money but it is the Residents of Kingston who lose and end up paying the highest Council tax of any Borough in London. We now have that unhappy reputation throughout the country.

And what do we get – we always get the same old excuses – we KNOW we get a poor deal out of the government – we always have had a low grant per head of the population.

This year however Richmond and Bromley get a lower rate support grant than Kingston and even they will levy lower Council taxes than us.

Now that we are not at the bottom of the list any longer and no longer the worst off Borough in this context but still certainly the worst off Borough as far as our residents are concerned still paying the highest Council Tax in London. These two other Boroughs get worst government grants than we do but they still manage lower Council tax demands for their residents.

Its not always what you earn or the amount of money that you spend but what you spend it on that counts and up to now my experience of this administration over my nearly eight years as a Councillor is that they do not spend money wisely.

Only 26% of residents surveyed in the CAA report produced at the end of last year thought that this Council gives value for money. 74% therefore were not satisfied that the Council provided services which gave value for money.

The CAA report said that we were a Council Performing to minimum standards with a score of only two stars for Managing Finances – two stars for Managing Resources – two stars for Governing the Business and two stars for Use of Resources. So in those areas we are performing adequately meeting only minimum requirements – not high performing with a four star performance as was attained under the last Conservative administration.

I would quote New Malden High Street, The Hook Centre, the Fountain in the Market Place in Kingston and £600,000 a year to the Rose theatre as examples of the inadequacy of this administration when it comes to good housekeeping of the Council’s money. Reduction is street sweeping from fortnightly to three weekly sweeps and the Council having to ask residents to look after the Council’s own wayside verges because the Quadron Contract was not set up properly.

Of course we are proud of our education system in Kingston and we need to protect it. We pledge to put resources and effort into all the school issues facing this Council. We support the government sponsored BSF.

It was us who foresaw the education numbers crisis looming and warned them – we should have been prepared instead of fighting the rear guard action this Administration is now engaged in trying to catch up lost ground. Children taught in portacabins is just not good enough.

On this side of the Chamber we are very grateful to the Conservative Mayor of London for his foresight and empathy to at least attempt to ease the strain on householder’s wallets by freezing the mayoral precept. Without the Mayor of London keeping his promises with regards to the overspending of various departments within City Hall our financial position would be even more dire.

Not built on business plans, but constructed on hope and ill-placed optimism. This Budget book has an insulting lack of information on which Councillors and residents alike can judge the quality of the Budget. Opposition Councillors had to demand the detailed information on which to base this amendment to the Liberal Democrat Budget before you today

Mr Mayor when we were making our own plans for this meeting we were very much in the dark about the detail of the budget proposed. The documents available to Councillors and residents did not reveal enough detail. In our opinion it was not a transparent exercise.

There was lots of headline information and little detail. Since we have held meetings with the Interim Director of Finance and his officers and thank them for their explanations and the additional information made available

At this point I will introduce our amendment to the substantive or amended budget proposed by the Leader.

Our difficulty has been that we like all Local Authorities are anxious to find efficiencies within the Budget to minimise the impact on residents lives – people are undoubtedly feeling the strain of higher taxes – higher prices – job losses and lower incomes. We are looking for efficiencies but at the same time not affecting the quality of service at the point of delivery other than to enhance it.

Clearly this Budget is based on four years of poor governance as I have previously stated and I would like to emphasis that we have been meticulous in our attempt to make legitimate savings.

We made proposal regarding the re-organisation of many senior management posts within the Council which would have saved more than a million pounds. We were told that these savings were already included in the Administration’s Budget and the work being carried out within One Council. Although it was not possible for the officers to identify the particular posts because the work in One Council was not completed. Not a situation we found satisfactory.

Many of our proposals have been rejected on the basis that they already exist in the Administrations Budget. This has often been difficult to quantify and again I pay tribute the Interim Finance Director and staff for their guidance in this matter.

We know that to achieve these efficiencies will be hard work. We recognise that the officers and Executive will be hard pressed to ensure the savings set out in our amendment. We know it would increase the budget risk.

We tried to achieve a zero % budget. The problems posed by 8 years of mismanagement by the liberal democrts have made this an impossible process. It is our belief and intention that in coming years in Administration ourselves and with a Conservative Government we will be able to achieve a zero increase budget for our residents.

But a Conservative Administration will achieve these savings as set out in my amendment. The Executive Member for Finance will attend Monthly Budget Meetings with the Director of Finance where Heads of Department will be judged on their abilities to manage these budget restraints.

In our own Group Office, we have strived to set an example of how we believe budgets should be run. In 2007/08, we saved over 21% of our budget, and in 2008/09, that figure was over 24%. – this year we are on course to save over 25% over £65,000 over three years.

Neighbourhood Budgets have over the last two years been under spent – travel budgets have various in built variations – for example the Maldens and Coombe Neighbourhood Travel budget is fixed on last years spend – last years spend was £1,300 and this years budget is being set at £2000. There is plenty of scope in these and areas of non- essential spending to make huge savings without affecting front line services.

These reductions in the budget are in our view wholly achievable and

Mr Mayor I move the amendment.