Ipswich Borough Council: 'This budget most difficult yet' says leader

This will be my last budget before I step down as leader of the Council in May. It has without a doubt been the most difficult one to put together in my entire time as leader.

Soaring costs, rocketing interest rates and the continuing hangover from Covid have taken a wrecking ball to councils’ finances across the country.

In July last year we could see the way things were going and produced a mid-term budget update that forecast inflation would add £6.5million of extra costs to the Council’s bills over the next four years, along with a savings programme to try and address the shortfall.

Since then, the Government has allowed inflation to increase even more dramatically, and we now believe that the Council’s costs will increase by a further £9million.

The Government has provided some extra funding, but this only amounts to covering £1 out of every £6 of our rising costs.

The direct result of the lack of support from the Government is that some of the projects and services we were looking to deliver over the next few years will have to be significantly scaled back or even scrapped completely.

As always we will do our utmost to protect the vital services people rely on but this is getting harder and harder to achieve.

The Government’s parsimony in supporting councils this year is even more galling when you see reports of the gargantuan waste of money that the Conservatives are currently overseeing at a national level.

The Government expects to spend £319m this yea storing and disposing of PPE which is no longer needed and is of such poor quality it is of no use to frontline staff. Image: PA

The National Audit Office last week reported that the Government has wasted £15billion on unused Covid supplies, including masks and gowns for NHS staff that have proved unusable and are now being burned.

This included £3.5billion of goods the Government committed to buy but has now decided it no longer needs, and £2.5billion of payments over the odds.

The Government expects to spend £319million this year storing and disposing of PPE which is no longer needed and is of such poor quality that it is of no use to frontline staff.

On a much smaller scale, but an even bigger waste of money, it was also revealed last week that taxpayers – that’s you and me – have currently paid £222,000 to Boris Johnson to cover his legal fees against allegations that he misled Parliament over Partygate.

Ex-Prime Minister Boris Johnson (Image: PA Wire/PA Images)

Most people caught misbehaving at work are booted out on their ear. They wouldn’t expect their employer to fork out money to fight against their dismissal.

Another example of how money is lost to the public purse is the sleazy tale of former Conservative Chancellor of the Exchequer Nadhim Zahawi’s taxes. The man in charge of the nation’s finances “carelessly” forgot to pay the taxes he owed and received a fine. As the head of HMRC said: we don’t fine people for “innocent errors”.

Nadhim Zahawi

Mr Zahawi still hasn’t come clean about how much tax he underpaid – these people never “carelessly” overpay their taxes do they? – but, by all accounts, it runs into millions of pounds.

To put it into perspective this money would pay for the shortfall on the Broomhill Pool project at least twice over.

Broomhill Pool in July 1987 (Image: Archant)

How many more millions have been lost to providing decent public services through multi-millionaires dodging the tax that they owe?

The Conservatives used to claim that they were the careful stewards of public finances but examples like this shows that isn’t true. Thirteen years of Conservative government have shattered that myth, just like the one about them being good at managing the economy – a sick joke after letting Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng loose on the nation.

In fact, it’s hard to think of a single thing that the current Conservative Government is good at.

It’s not surprising then that even long-term Conservative supporter Rod Stewart has now come to the conclusion that they should “stand down and give the Labour Party a go”.

Rod Stewart had his say last week. Image: PA (Image: PA Wire/PA Images)