CLUELESS CONSERVATIVES ASK FOR PAY DAY LOAN

East Sussex County Council cannot balance its budget and is now technically bankrupt.  Conservative councillors have now asked the government for a loan of £70 plus million loan.  Cllr David Tutt, Leader of the Liberal Democrat opposition on East Sussex County Council explains:

“We have repeatedly warned the Conservative administration over a number of years that we were approaching this financial cliff edge.  They have repeatedly chosen to ignore our warnings and to dismiss our calls for a transformation programme that would have helped to put the Council’s long term finances on a more secure footing.  This would have included the sale of assets that they are land banking such as ST Ann’s School in Lewes and of course, the largely underused County Hall, as well as carrying out a complete review of the Council’s staffing structure.

The County Council can no longer meet it’s statutory obligations.  This is a structural failure in the way in which the Conservative government managed local authority finances, insisting on a small state, low tax economy that has stripped local government of its funding while at the same time restricting the way in which councils can manage their own finances.

Their only answer is to take out a £70 million loan which they have no idea how they can repay to cover a deficit of around £55 million.  They gave no explanation as to why they need an additional £15 million. 

This will put an additional financial burden on residents in the longer term and will not help demand for statutory services such as Adult Social Care and SEND demand for which has escalated exponentially.

The Labour government’s Fairer Funding Review has taken further money away from East Sussex in favour of Labour controlled councils. 

These proposals which are not underpinned by any plans for repayment are a survival strategy not a solution and are not sustainable. 

It’s time for this Conservative administration to come up with a clear transparent plan on how they will reform the County Council and help it prepare for local government re-organisation without putting services and assets at risk and putting the new authority that will be established in 2027 under an impossible financial strain”.