OPINION Standing up through the cuts, Greater Manchester councils fighting back

5 min read

Confidentials.com wants all opinions on these pages. This article comes from a Labour councillor. If someone of a different political persuasion has a view then let us know. Now, over to Josh...

I was made redundant in July of last year, as inflation soared, gas and electric bills skyrocketed and the average price of petrol in the UK hit an a record high of 191.2p a litre. 

Signing up for Universal Credit and visiting the Job Centre once a week for 4 months before I returned to work, I was witnessing first-hand the squeeze that so many people across Greater Manchester felt, and though I was lucky to be insulated from the worst effects of my situation – I still lived at home and my parents were able to help me with my bills – I became despondent at what seemed like a looming cycle of debt and living month to month on a sum that is less than a quarter of the real living wage.

if it’s a choice between helping families that are struggling to heat their homes and feed their kids; or freezing council tax and bankrupting the town, then I know that my council is making the right choice

As a Labour activist and someone who stood for election to Oldham Council in May of 2022, I was therefore proud to see that the Labour administration had announced a £3 million package to help support residents through this cost of living crisis in September. 

By providing more funding for Oldham Foodbank, ensuring that residents are helped to claim the benefits they are entitled to, and creating warm food banks, Oldham Council sought to deliver a comprehensive plan to support thousands across the borough. It is something sorely needed for an area routinely shown to be one of the most deprived in Greater Manchester, as well as one of the most deprived in the country.

“Frankly, we have had to step in because the government were not addressing this crisis and people can’t wait for a general election, they need help now,” Amanda Chadderton tells me. 

As the lead for the Cost of Living response from Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) and the Leader of Oldham Council Amanda knows exactly how people have been struggling over the winter and how hard it is for councils like Oldham to meet this demand. 

“We are doing this because it is the right thing to do. No council leader comes in wanting to raise council tax, but we have had to make tough choices with 13 years’ worth of cuts, the COVID-19 pandemic and now the War in Ukraine. This year, the government have effectively told councils to raise council tax by 5% and factored that into their funding formula, putting even more pressure on the budget. We are now proposing 3.99%, which is obviously higher than we wanted, but if it’s a choice between helping families that are struggling to heat their homes and feed their kids; or freezing council tax and bankrupting the town, then I know that my council is making the right choice.”

“Frankly, we have had to step in because the government were not addressing this crisis and people can’t wait for a general election, they need help now,” Amanda Chadderton tells me. 

As the lead for the Cost of Living response from Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) and the Leader of Oldham Council Amanda knows exactly how people have been struggling over the winter and how hard it is for councils like Oldham to meet this demand. 

“We are doing this because it is the right thing to do. No council leader comes in wanting to raise council tax, but we have had to make tough choices with 13 years’ worth of cuts, the COVID-19 pandemic and now the War in Ukraine. This year, the government have effectively told councils to raise council tax by 5% and factored that into their funding formula, putting even more pressure on the budget. We are now proposing 3.99%, which is obviously higher than we wanted, but if it’s a choice between helping families that are struggling to heat their homes and feed their kids; or freezing council tax and bankrupting the town, then I know that my council is making the right choice.”

As councils across the country received the Local Government Funding Settlement for 2023 – 2024 in December, every council was faced with the same prospect they have faced since 2010. More cuts to vital services and the prospect of raising council tax to help bridge the gap. It’s often stated that council tax in Oldham is higher than it is in the City of Westminster, which is true. But affluent areas have not been hit as hard as more deprived areas, chiefly because they have alternative ways of raising revenue that simply are not available to councils in other parts of the country. Westminster Council made £32.3m from parking fines in 2021 – roughly the amount of cuts Oldham had to make that same year. 

In neighbouring Rochdale (main picture, Town Hall), the council had already priced in a 1.99% council tax rise with a 1% precept for adult social care for the next two years. In last year’s budget, Rochdale’s Labour administration utilised £1m that would be going into their reserves and instead earmarked it for creating a new poverty fund, as well as helping to fund a council tax reduction scheme in the borough. 

Councillor Liam O’Rourke, who’s represented North Heywood for over 10 years, hailed this as an “inspired” response to the Cost of Living crisis, but says that despite this, things have become worse for his residents. 

As Cabinet member for Climate Change and Environment, Cllr O’Rourke has been at the forefront of council initiatives to make life easier for residents across the Borough of Rochdale, including the provision of free bulky waste collection and an avid supporter of measures to support everyone in the borough, backing plans to extend free school meals to all children. 

He has been scathing at the government’s “levelling up” agenda, where traditionally Tory voting seats have seen millions funnelled to them whilst many deprived seats were left with nothing. His own MP, the conservative Chris Clarkson, was accused of not engaging with the council and potentially costing them funding. 

“People voted for the Tories at the last General Election because they wanted their lives to get better,” Councillor O’Rourke explained. “But the longer time has gone on, more and more people have told me that they regret voting Tory because life hasn’t improved and at least with Labour they had an MP who was engaged with the community and would work with the council.” 

This is a message that I have heard myself on the doorstep in many places, including in Saddleworth, where I stood for the council and in Wakefield where Labour retook the parliamentary seat in a by-election last year.

Across Greater Manchester there are other impressively creative ways that councils are fighting poverty and the cost of living crisis despite receiving cuts in their funding from central government. 

Manchester City Councillor Sam Wheeler calculated that with the cuts his council have had to make since 2010, they could have bought Manchester United Football Club. Yet, the new housing strategy, focused on restoring Manchester City Council’s housing stock, will see 36,000 homes built in the next 10 years in Manchester, with 10,000 affordable homes, by selling council owned land to developers who agree to build more affordable housing.

Alongside investments in temporary accommodation, the council’s focus is on reducing homelessness and making sure that everyone has a somewhere decent to live. 

This is something councils across Greater Manchester are working to achieve.

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