Opinion: Government financial chaos and delays are costing Mansfield residents dearly

The fact the Chancellor has delayed his autumn economic statement until November 17 and that there will no announcement on Mansfield’s £20 million levelling up bid until Christmas is piling more financial pressure onto Mansfield Council.

The real effect of these delays are everyone’s bills going up while we all have to just sit and wait.

We have a Prime Minister, who was the Chancellor and Michael Gove returning as the third Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Secretary in as many months, who between them still can’t come up with a plan for the funding of Local Government.

This Conservative government has been in power for 12 years now, but the Fair Funding Review for Local Government and decisions on modernising business rates still have not been put forward.

So every year, we have to survive hand to mouth to try and plan for the future, regenerate our town and district and protect local services.

The Government’s 10-year austerity program reduced councils funding by 21-27 per cent, leading to a reduction in income of somewhere between £16 billion-£30bn, depending on which expert you listen to.

Even during the Covid crisis councils were only reimbursed 75 per cent of their expenditure and received no help at all with any lost income.

This has led to local authority staff and services being under continuous unsustainable pressure, rising levels of inequality where the poorest in society have suffered the most.

The cuts in funding have undermined council’s efforts to achieve greater saving and efficiency.

We have had no spare money to invest in modernisation and planned preventative maintenance.

We have and continue to protect our existing services having inherited several million pounds of deficits each year and we have to balance our budget – we cannot just borrow our way out of

trouble like government.

Mansfield Council is not immune to the cost of living pressures ordinary people are feeling every day.

We are suffering with the same inflationary pressure like everyone else that shows itself in skill shortages where refuse collection staff leave for higher paid jobs or work at Amazon and vital professional people, such as planners and regeneration officers leave, so we have to employ agency staff at much higher rates, just to keep services going.

Construction projects are increasing by 25 per cent, contractors are going bust, leading to re-tendering of contracts and costs associated with delays.

Projects budgeted prior to these unprecedented inflationary increases then become unviable.

Here are some real live facts about the increase in the costs of running our basic services: electricity, £332,000 increase; gas, £254,000 increase; fuel, £500,000 increase.

At Mansfield, we have supported arts and culture with our fantastic Palace Theatre and award-winning museum, as well as working with local voluntary services to protect our most vulnerable in

our communities.

However, none of these are statutory services and we are finding it increasingly difficult to find the money to fund them.

These services are part of the heart and soul of Mansfield and vital to help increase visitors numbers to regenerate our town and district, so the Government needs to step up and help us.

Only 10p in every £1 pays for all the services that Mansfield provides from maintaining 150 parks and open spaces to emptying 10 000 bins daily and 579 miles of streets clean, while 90p in every £1

goes to the Conservatives running Nottinghamshire Council, so Mansfield’s residents deserve a fairer share of funding to support its communities.