Local government is in the eye of a “perfect storm” said Paul Gilroy of the local government’s service group executive, opening the morning’s debates at UNISON’s local government conference in Glasgow.
Cuts to local government services, attacks on terms and conditions and mass redundancies are causing damage to front line services, reducing the scope of service provision and weakening the social fabric of local communities and local economies.
Mr Gilroy said that UNISON was at the forefront of debunking the Tories’ failed economic policy – a policy which had brought a £25bn shortfall in income tax receipts, a £7.4bn shortfall in national insurance receipts and an £8.5bn shortfall in corporation tax receipts.
Glen Williams of the service group executive called for the union to “build the broadest possible support for an alternative economic strategy.” And he explained that although local Labour councils must do all they could, “we must not allow central government to pass the blame to local government.”
Paula Barker from the North West region explained what local government cuts meant for one local authority: a cut of £64,000 every day for seven years. Such a crisis called for a direct relationship between the council and its services, she said, yet councils were embracing commissioning and outsourcing.
Sarah Huntingford from Nottingham city branch, condemned the “human misery caused by this government.” She reported attending a demonstration about the closure of a day centre for the elderly, where she talked to a 90-year-old man who spent two days a week there. He told her that although he valued the centre, most important of all was that “on those two days I can turn my heating off”. Without the centre he would no longer be able to heat his home.
Registrar Penny Smith explained that at Northamptonshire Council where she worked, outsourcing meant over 4,000 employees were due to be cut to 150. And EU competition rules meant that competitive tendering would be compulsory in three years. “Why would we put services already in crisis, including childrens’ services, through this?” she asked.
It also meant that in three to five years she could stand at at wedding ceremony and pronounce: “The place before you has been duly sanctioned for marriage… by Capita.”
Activists were fighting back locally and supporting each other nationally, the conference heard. Helen Davies from UNISON’s Barnet branch, which for years has been battling total privatisation, thanked members for donations and messages of support. In turn, the branch was meeting and supporting other campaigning members, such as those working for Care UK and Glasgow’s homeless carers, to inspire and motivate each other.
Conference called on UNISON to fight to protect the local services members provide to the communities where they live, work and serve.