Labour councils, Tory cuts and a century of fighting austerity | Letters
Zoe Williams' article (Red-on-red warfare won't stop austerity, 29 January) contains some welcome recognition of the challenges that councils face under prolonged Tory austerity. But as she says, austerity has not gone away and for councils that have been dealing with it for nine years now things are more difficult than ever. Lambeth council has lost over 230m of government funding since 2010, with a further 38m to find over the next few years.
Despite keeping 23 children's centres open since 2010, at a time when Tory cuts have closed hundreds across the country, in 2018 the government cut the dedicated schools grant, which helps to fund our children's centres, by 1.4m. As a council, we have protected children's centres from that cut this year - but now we have no choice, with further cuts in all services imposed by the Tories, except to consult on plans that will keep 18 children's centres in the borough. While that will see five centres shut, we're working with them so they can still provide nursery places and other activities for children so the buildings aren't lost to the community and are still open if we get a Labour government that will fund local services properly as Zoe Williams suggests.
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