How right David Ellesmere was in his article in the Ipswich Star of 9 April that “families are struggling to make ends meet”. As usual, however, he fails to put the other side of the equation and explain why we are in this very unfortunate position.
This country is in an economic mess and being forced to take very difficult financial decisions as a result of the mismanagement of the economy by the previous Labour Government. Gordon Brown left this country with the largest structural deficit in the developed world. For every £4 spent by the Labour Government, £1 was borrowed and our debt mountain increased to such an extent that we are now paying over £120 million every day in interest charges. The banks made a bad situation worse, but what got this country into a financial mess was Labour spending money we didn’t have and couldn’t afford. That money now has to be paid back and that is why difficult financial decisions have to be taken.
The Coalition Government has started to clear up the mess left by Labour and has had to take many tough and unpopular decisions. Despite this the Government’s actions will ensure that 24 million households will be £338 a year (or £6.50 a week) better off and millions of people will be taken out of tax altogether as a result of increasing the personal tax allowance. The basic state pension is also going up by its largest ever cash sum and there are increases in other benefits. Council Tax has also been frozen through Government action.
Cllr. Ellesmere has conveniently forgotten that if Labour had been elected in 2010, it was also committed to cutting public expenditure and raising taxes. He also fails to mention that, as Leader of the Borough Council, he has added to the strains on local families by:
- Increasing Council house rents by 5.6%
- Agreeing to increase fees and charges for Council services by 3% - a real terms increase when the Council’s own estimate for inflation in 2012/13 is only 2.3%.
At the same time, the Council will also be borrowing more, increasing its debt and spending the handsome reserves left to it by the previous Conservative – led Administration.
Under Cllr. Ellesmere, there is a real danger that the Borough Council is following in the footsteps of the last Labour Government in building up debt and leaving the bill to be picked up by Council Tax payers in the future.