Crisis funds under threat

From April 2015, a £180m a year hardship fund will be abolished. Councils have simply not made a strong enough argument for it it would seem. This is a disgrace and deserves far greater attention as councils struggle to provide for their local residents. "Iain Duncan Smith's axe has struck again. This time its local authority welfare assistance schemes on the block. But we're not talking reform or even cuts. The scheme had already been significantly cut last year. From April 2015 a £180m a year hardship fund will be abolished completely. That's right. Scrapped. A vital safety net will no longer be there. Crisis loans are not really well known as they are applied for when people are really desperate and have few options left it is often recommended to them as the shame in applying for it is huge with a social stigma attached to it too sadly. But this fund is vital and will have dire consequences I fear. "Yet for all the welfare campaigns and demonstrations highlighting changes to the benefit system this has largely slipped under the radar. Crisis funds have not had the attention they deserve. From freedom of information requests to councils across the country, from a sample of 98 local authorities that the average spend in the first six months was around 20% – but in many cases the fund was just not working. The worst authority was Hertfordshire county council, which had spent less than 1% of the £1,765,277 they received for the scheme. In the first six months they had spent just £11,990. The fact that the council had been awarded £373,000 to administer this fund showed the bureaucrats were doing very well at the expense of people who really need help. Other councils were just as bad. Herefordshire had spent just 1% of their funding and their council leader, Tony Johnson, a former banker, went on national radio to say he was pleased with the results. Cumbria had also spent just 1% of their funding, Hillingdon had only spent 2%, and Newcastle-upon-Tyne had only spent 3% and Manchester 6%. In all of these places poverty exists. Even in leafy Hertfordshire there are food banks and 32,000 children in child poverty. Some council have a complete ignorance of poverty. There are examples where small grants to help a family feed their children were withheld until they'd been on a cooking course and one council offering a homeless man a voucher for a tent. The government has to accept a large part of the blame for this. Their version of localism seems to be directing funds towards councils and waiting for them to fail so they can justify scrapping schemes. There has to be better guidance. But I can't help thinking that had there been more evidence of municipal innovation in tackling poverty, with stronger partnerships with the voluntary sector, then the Local Government Association could have prevented this fund being abolished by making a strong argument to retain it. As it stands, both local and central government have failed the most vulnerable people in society. Poverty can never be tackled simply through central government schemes. There is a growing need for more innovative, local approaches. But where will the funding come from to develop these now?" With extracts from http://www.theguardian.com/local-government-network/2014/jan/07/council-crisis-funds-scrapped-poverty

Why I’m standing for TUSC

I initially wasn’t going to stand this year for elections in the county council but I am glad I have thrown my hat into the ring now. It hasn’t been easy for a blind person to stand in elections there is so many inaccessible forms to fill in and getting nominations is a challenge too I eventually managed this though with the help of my comrades who I thank hugely. I will be standing in the Tory rural strong hold of Ware north in East Hertfordshire. The initial policies I will be standing on are • Oppose all cuts to council jobs, services, pay and conditions - we reject the claim that 'some cuts' are necessary to our services. • Reject increases in council tax, rent and service charges to compensate for government cuts. • Vote against the privatisation of council jobs and services, or the transfer of council services to 'social enterprises' or 'arms-length' management organisations, which are first steps to privatisation. • Use all the legal powers available to councils, including powers to refer local NHS decisions, initiate referenda and organise public commissions and consultations, to oppose both the cuts and government polices which centrally impose the transfer of public services to private bodies. • When faced with government cuts to council funding, councils should refuse to implement the cuts. We will support councils which in the first instance use their reserves and prudential borrowing powers to avoid passing them on - while arguing that the best way to mobilise the mass campaign that is necessary to defeat the cuts is to set a budget that meets the needs of the local community and demands that the government makes up the shortfall. This is the basic TUSC programme it’s designed as a basic outline as candidates can add bits to it for their local campaigns and local issues which affect them in their area. As I’m standing in Ware North I stand also against local cuts handed down by the Tory lead Herts County Council which include cuts to street lighting at night which I’ve previously blogged about, the cuts to lollipop crossing workers putting children’s lives at risk when walking to and from school and cuts to budgets on the roads meaning we have some of the worst kept roads in the county with many pot holes on our counties roads. Its clear labour are no alternative and in Hertfordshire this is no different their record in local councils like Stevenage Borough Council highlights this where they have implemented the cuts passed on to them from the con-dem government. The Trade Union and Socialist Coalition do not accept any cuts are necessary and in fact even more investment is needed in our public services. There is poverty in Ware despite many thinking we are in a relatively well off area no doubt some are doing quite well but how long this will last as the financial crisis deepens by the month. In ware we have a food bank which serves around 200 people a week so anyone pretending Ware is well off is lying as many who use a food bank are actually in low paid work often unsocial hours that are not paid enough to live on. Hertfordshire County Council should look to pay all its employees a liveable wage not just a living wage which his a code for a increased minimum wage but a wage that workers can live on properly without the need for benefits or food banks. I do not expect to gain hugely from standing this may but by me standing it offers the people of Ware and beyond an alternative from the main cuts parties. TUSC will be contesting 125 seats this may up and down the country with a candidate for the Mayor of Doncaster too. If you wish to find out more check out www.tusc.org.uk

socialists and trade unionists against the cuts in the local council elections

I've been meanign to do a post on this matter for a while but tonights branch meeting gave me some more thoughts.

As we all know the local council elections are fast approaching us on the 5th of May and the cuts are boundto play a big part in where the votes go. But a little known part under the banner of TUSC trade unionists socialist coalition a left wing umbrella taking people who want to stand against the status quo which is the big 3 main political parties who are all in favour of cuts just at varying paces but all for cuts none the less dont let them tell you any different.

Please do feel free to check out their site here .
http://www.tusc.org.uk/

As socialists we oppose all the cuts not just some of the cuts like labour we offer a real alternative to working class people who want something different who stands up for working class peoples needs.

TUSC has agreed the policy platform, outlined below, on which it is proposing to contest the elections to local councils that will take place next May in every area of England bar London. TUSC is also involved in discussions to organise an election challenge for the Scottish parliament and Welsh assembly elections (there are no local elections in Scotland and Wales in 2011).

The local elections policy platform, agreed at a conference of TUSC supporters in January, is the basis on which any prospective council candidate who wishes to can stand under the TUSC name in May's elections.

The local elections policy platform is a supplement to the core policy statement that TUSC candidates endorsed when they stood in the general election in May 2010, which still stands as the basic policy position of the TUSC coalition (see 'Trade Unionists and Socialist Coalition Policies' below).

The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition policy platform for the 2011 local elections in England:
THE LOCAL council elections in May 2011 will be the first opportunity voters will have in England to register public opposition at the ballot box to the Con-Dem government's unparalleled attack on our public services.

But the elections are not just a chance to make a one-day 'protest vote'. They are also an opportunity to elect councillors who can actually stop many of the cuts from being implemented locally.

Over the years, it is true, local councils have been stripped of many of their powers over different services. Margaret Thatcher, who began this process, famously said, "I must take more power to the centre to stop socialism" - in other words, that public services that 'crowded out' the private sector should be curbed or, where they exist, should be opened up to private companies to make profits from public needs. It is a matter of record that the New Labour government carried on with this approach throughout its 13 years in office - the turnover of private companies running public services reached over £80 billion in 2008, for example, 126% higher than 1995-96 under the previous Tory government.

But councils still have enormous powers and responsibilities, controlling budgets totalling billions of pounds, spent on services from housing to schools, youth clubs, libraries, adult social care, crime reduction, sports centres, highways maintenance and refuse collection, to name but a few. They have legal powers, over some non-council provided services for example, including many of those now privatised, that they can exercise for our benefit.

What councillors do, therefore, can still affect the quality of our daily lives. They certainly don't have to accept every dictate from central government to cut or privatise our services. They have a choice. Even a minority group on a council, or a single councillor, can make a difference, by using their position as democratically elected local representatives to appeal to and help organise community campaigns and trade unionists to fight.

The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) is an alliance which includes individual trade unionists, community campaigners and different political parties. Yet, while we each have our own general policies and programme, all our candidates are committed to using every opportunity open to councillors - from public campaigning to presenting policy motions at council meetings - to do everything possible to protect and improve our public services. Voting for TUSC councillors will make a difference.

All TUSC councillors will:
* Oppose all cuts to council jobs, services, pay and conditions - we reject the claim that 'some cuts' are necessary to our services.

* Reject above inflation increases in council tax, rent and service charges to compensate for government cuts.

* Vote against the privatisation of council services, or the transfer of council services to 'social enterprises' or 'arms-length' management organisations, which are first steps to privatisation.

* Use all the legal powers available to councils, including powers to refer local NHS decisions, initiate referenda and organise public commissions and consultations, to oppose both the cuts and government polices which centrally impose the transfer of public services to private bodies.

* When faced with government cuts to council funding, councils should refuse to implement the cuts. We will support councils which in the first instance use their reserves and prudential borrowing powers to avoid passing them on - while arguing that the best way to mobilise the mass campaign that is necessary to defeat the cuts is to set a budget that meets the needs of the local community and demands that the government makes up the shortfall.


We in the socialist party argue that there needs to be a new workers party formed as labour no longer represent working class peoples views and needs as a political force. They also do not represent trade unions and take their funding but back them very little. So TUSC may well be a stop gap but it is the best we have as a left alternative at the moment.

In Stevenage we are fielding 5 candidates in wards we feel we can do well in and one in my hometown of Ware. We hope to do ok but to us as socialists we are not really interested in totally getting elected this time around. If we do all well and good but we are not expecting to at all if any of our candidates gain power they will be supported by the local community and the rest of the labour movement and supported to back the policies we stand by in voting against cuts.

But as a party and comrades we feel it is far more benificail to get out there on the doorsteps and use it as a opputunity to build the movement and answer peoples questions on our policies and what we'd do. If we win them over to our cause all the better but it is more about getting ourselves out there and talking to peopl if we can more so than getting elected. Of course what the policy points do not say that if a candidate from TUSC stands and wins and gets elected they will only take the wage of a average skilled worker just as the socialist party advocates. To not raise themselves above the working class rooting themselves firmly within the movement and being able to emphasise with their supporters and the wider working class. The rest of the money they recieve will be donated back to the cause of socialism and fighting for fairness for all not just the few.