- Conference
- 2015 Local Government Service Group Conference
- Date
- 1 January 2015
- Decision
- Carried as Amended
Conference condemns the continued attacks on the funding of Local Government. These cuts are the biggest threat to the continued survival of the concept of locally provided services controlled by democratically elected councils.
Conference deplores the local government cuts across the UK, leading to:-
1. continuing cuts to local government services;
2. continued attacks on terms and conditions;
3. mass redundancies and loss of jobs;
4. damage to front line services;
5. receding scope of service provision;
6. impact on the social fabric of local communities;
7. damage to local economies.
The Conservative-led Coalition is using the 2008 banking crisis and the subsequent failure to eliminate the deficit by 2015 to justify further drastic cuts to public expenditure in an ideological move to create a ‘smaller state’.
Conference notes the continued failure of the ‘austerity’ agenda, including the £25bn shortfall in income tax receipts, the £7.4bn shortfall in National Insurance receipts and the £8.5bn shortfall in Corporation Tax receipts in the Government’s 2010 income projections for 2013/14. Conference also notes the success of anti austerity parties in Europe.
The shortfall in national insurance receipts is driven by low pay, zero hours contracts and employers avoiding payment of employer NI contributions through the use of self employment, companies and agencies.
Meanwhile austerity cuts are providing an excuse for councils to continue to outsource services, or develop shared services with other public bodies and private organisations. Within some regions Combined Authorities have been established as a vehicle to access further funding, however it is imperative that these do not undermine local authorities.
Councils are also using the cuts as a reason to use volunteers, and again we must ensure that these volunteers are not used to replace staff.
Experience teaches us that outsourcing, privatisation and shared services does not always reap the rewards of reducing costs and improving services that councils claim. In fact the quality of service normally suffers especially when the private sector is involved.
Local Government is under attack on many fronts, and any attempts to undermine its importance must remain a priority for our union. We must fight to protect local democratic accountability and the services our members provide to the communities where they live, work and serve.
The tidal wave of cuts can seem overpowering and it is important therefore that we celebrate victories. In Tower Hamlets for example campaigns involving nursery parents, workers, and service users succeeded this year in preventing the closure of four day care nurseries, cuts to Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services and the closure of the African and Muslim Families Service. There will be many examples from around the country of such successes – we need to popularise the message that where we campaign and fight alongside our communities we can win.
No council service is safe from the threat of cuts in funding. The workforce faces mass redundancies, and for those that do manage to retain a job, there is an onslaught of attacks of terms and conditions as well as increased workload.
Conference welcomes the increasing vigorous campaigns that many branches have had in challenging cuts to terms and conditions and congratulates those that have successfully resisted them. Conference also welcomes the Service Group’s ‘Save Our Services’ and Damage campaigns, which have attracted a lot of publicity, highlighting the damage done to services such as youth services, parks, libraries, street lighting, trading standards and environmental health, as well as the devastating impact caused for women by the cuts in local government funding.
Conference reaffirms its belief in the:-
a) need for local government funding structures and settlements which provide sufficient resources to improve service provision, meet unmet need, restore the value of local government pay and restore lost working conditions;
b) importance to the UK economy of improving services provided by local authorities which are critical to our economic performance, good health, raised levels of education and skills and which prevent the imprudent use of public money on crisis intervention.
Conference calls on the Service Group Executive to continue to:-
i) Fight for:
(a) A future direction for local government finance that is sustainable, fair, provide for equalisation, local democratic accountability and determination and which minimise avoidance and maximise ease of collection;
(b) Resource distribution models based on need.
(c) Adequate funding for local government services so that councils can continue to provide high quality services locally”
ii) Argue for:-
(a) A new settlement on employment and trade union rights and an accompanying agenda for jobs and pay and conditions within the four UK nations;
(b) A new workforce strategy that includes the Living Wage as the minimum pay rate, maintains equal pay proofed pay structures and provides access to high quality training and workforce development, apprenticeships and a ‘gender agenda’ to address the needs of a predominantly female workforce;
iii. Defend members’ jobs and terms and conditions through increasing membership, collective bargaining, political influence and including where appropriate and necessary, industrial action within UNISON’s rules and procedures;
iv. Urgently investigate ways of organising co-ordinated industrial action, including strike action, across branches and with other trade unions.
v) Provide guidance to support branches to ensure that every effort is made to protect pay and conditions and retain equal pay proofed pay structures.
vi) Provide guidance and support to local government branches and regional campaigns on fighting the cuts that focus attention on the central role of government spending decisions as part of the fight against cuts to local government services;
vii) Encourage branches and regions to publicise successful campaigns against cuts;
viii) Build an inclusive campaign to support our call for an alternative to the current austerity measures that are having such an adverse impact on local government;
ix) Work with other parts of the union, other local government bodies, the TUC, civil society organisations and Labour Link to build on UNISON’s current alternative economic strategy and tackle tax evasion and avoidance and unfair means of taxation;
x) Help branches to use legislation around social value to campaign against service fragmentation;
xi) Campaign for a ‘green agenda’ for local government to increase efficiency and create environmental sustainability Call for immediate financial measures to increase local authority service budgets from 2016/17, including progress on the merger of Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) funds;
xii) Hold regional briefing seminars for UNISON members who are elected members of local authorities to equip them with the arguments to defend local services;
xiii) Give consideration to calling for using the (debt free) money creation powers of the Bank of England to re-finance existing local authority debt, reduce capital financing costs and release revenue resources through the development of a public sector equivalent to quantitative easing.