Political opinion: Kimberley MP says Nottingham’s finances are back on track
This week, the commissioners at Nottingham City Council announced that they will be leaving at the end of this month, on schedule for the timeline they set out in 2024.
This is a big moment for the council, and I want to look at how we got here, and what’s next for Nottingham.
The commissioners were appointed by the Conservative Government to oversee the running of the council, with a particular focus on the city’s finances.
They were given powers to direct the council and, if they saw fit, hey could overrule the decisions made by the elected councillors.
Throughout their placement, the commissioners regularly reported their views on how the council was progressing back to Government ministers.
This week they have delivered their final report, and it’s a huge vote of confidence for the work of the council.
Specifically referring to the finances, they say ‘this improvement has been significant in such a short timeframe, indeed almost unimaginable’.
With the council recently announcing that it has cut its debt by 64 per cent, the figures speak for themselves.
So does the fact that this the first time anywhere in the country that local government commissioners have left on schedule.
This turnaround has come from the hard work of Nottingham Labour councillors, who have turned the city’s finances around, and from the support of a Labour government which values local councils.
During the 14 years of the Tories, council funding formulas were intentionally skewed away from urban areas, which were generally Labour councils, towards more rural and more wealthy Tory councils.
This Labour Government corrected this imbalance and improved Nottingham’s funding by 40 per cent, along with a 30 per cent increase for Nottinghamshire County Council.
With the city’s finances on a strong footing, and democratic decision-making soon to be returned, we should all see the impact soon.
This year’s city budget, which is due to be debated and voted on next month, contains lots of investment in frontline services, including £0.5m for improving the city’s roads and almost £1m for enhanced street cleaning.
There will be more money for maintenance of parks and green spaces too, as well as intensive weeding and improved neighbourhood safety.
Now that the hard work has been done, by the local councillors, and in electing a Government which cares about our city, we can start to reap the rewards.