BRADFORD Council is this week expected to announce how it aims to plug a huge gap in its finances - currently estimated at around £72 million for this year alone.
Council bosses have said if Government does not step in to offer support, it is unlikely to balance its budget, and the authority would effectively become bankrupt.
The Telegraph & Argus asked Council Leader Susan Hinchcliffe how the Council had found itself in the current financial crisis.
What Susan Hinchcliffe has to say on the Council's financial crisis
'All councils will go bust over the next two years, it’s just a matter of when' was the opening comments of a Local Government Association (LGA) spokesperson at a meeting I attended recently.
And certainly here in Bradford district, the finances have never been as stretched as they are now.
It’s not for want of trying to reduce costs. We’ve had to.
The Government has delivered a real terms cut to Bradford Council’s budget of 60 per cent since 2010, that’s £350 million pounds gone from our spend.
And this has happened at a time when the cost-of-living crisis has hugely increased demand for our services.
Against the budget we set in February, we are projecting 87 per cent will be spent on children’s social care and adult social care this year. That means there is very little left for anything else.
The LGA reckons nationally there is a £4 billion gap in local authority budgets. But so far Government have failed to address this.
Bradford Children and Families Trust has an independent Board and Chair, national experts appointed by Government.
They are telling us that they need £250 million this year to look after children in this district, yet we only raise £233 million in council tax.
The costs of looking after children have rocketed in recent years across the country.
The number of children in care has risen by 61 per cent since 2012.
We have a moral and legal obligation to look after them. Children’s social care services provide essential support for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children.
They are children who have been abused, children who have severe mental health challenges, children who have such complex disabilities that they need several staff members 24 hours a day to look after them.
The Bradford Children and Families Trust is a safety net and lifeline for children who, through no fault of their own, find themselves in such circumstances.
When the Government’s own Commissioner, the Independent Board, and the Chief Executive of the Children’s Trust - all with a track record of success - are saying this money is needed, who is Government or indeed the Council to disagree?
We’re backing the Children’s Trust, we need Government to back it also.
If children’s social care, adult social care, and other funding for the voluntary sector, for example, is strained, there will then be more and more demand on the police, GPs, and the NHS.
The Council keeps people healthy at home and prevents them from getting ill and needing emergency services.
That’s part of the reason why the funding for the NHS is never enough, because all the Council services that support them have been hollowed out during national Government austerity.
As the youngest city in the country, we have an opportunity to transform our district.
We’re on the cusp of more capital investment than ever before, with the Government announcement of £2 billion for the new station and connection to the mainline.
With new investments in Keighley and Shipley from the Towns Fund and new private sector investment in a hydrogen hub and other important regeneration, our children could have a better future.
Money for buildings cannot be diverted to pay for services, and even then much of it comes in from external sources including the West Yorkshire Mayor.
But to fulfil our potential we do need a Government that will support our council to sustain services, post-pandemic, during a cost of living crisis, after 13 years of austerity.
I believe in Bradford’s future and we’ll keep fighting for a better deal for people across the district. I just need Government to show they believe in Bradford district too.
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