The Leader of Islington Council, Cllr Richard Watts, has written to the new Prime Minister alongside more than 100 Leaders of Labour councils from across the country to call for more funding for local councils.

Following the appointment of the new Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government – Robert Jenrick MP – Cllr Watts has also written directly to him calling for urgent action on serious issues affecting Islington.

Since 2010, Islington Council has lost 70% of its core central government funding and has had to make savings of £275 million from its budgets.  Across the country, councils have lost 60p out of every £1 of funding that the last Labour Government was spending on local government in 2010.

Cllr Watts has joined calls for the new Prime Minister to immediately invest £2 billion in children’s services and £2 billion adult social care, and pledge to use the upcoming Spending Review to restore councils’ funding to 2010 levels.

In his letter to the Secretary of State, Cllr Watts calls for urgent action to –

• Provide additional funding to local councils
• Support local authorities to build more new council homes
• Keep young people safe by enabling early intervention and prevention
• Update national policies to tackle the environment and climate emergenc
• Give small businesses a fairer deal.

Cllr Richard Watts, Leader of Islington Council, said:

“We might have a new Prime Minister and a new Secretary of State, but the same issues continue to affect Islington and we need to see immediate action to address them. It is essential that councils, including Islington, receive additional funding to help us provide the vital services that local people rely on.

 

“In my letter to the new Secretary of State I’ve made it clear that, on top of extra core funding, we need more support to build more new council homes, backing for our work to tackle crime through prevention and early intervention, action to tackle the climate emergency and a fairer deal for small businesses.

 

“The lack of action on each of these issues by the Government is just another example of how they are letting local people in Islington down, whilst simultaneously jeopardising people’s jobs and futures by threatening to take the country out of the EU without a deal.”