Today, the Labour Government has announced that the Minister is “minded” to send commissioners into Croydon.
This would mean the Labour Government seizing key powers and giving them to unelected Labour commissioners who could override local democratic decisions - including forcing tax hikes and cuts on a scale unlike that which we have already seen.
Let me be clear: This is the wrong decision and I will oppose it every step of the way.
Croydon has already suffered enough. Residents have paid the price for the disastrous financial decisions made by the previous Labour Council - a proud town bankrupted through disastrous financial mismanagement and an appalling failure of governance.
Since I was elected as Mayor, I have been working hard to fix what Labour broke. The Local Government Association’s Corporate Peer Challenge concluded that Croydon was making “significant progress” towards fixing Croydon Labour’s financial mismanagement.
Furthermore, the Government-appointed Improvement Panel, who have been overseeing Croydon since the Labour bankruptcy, have written many reports talking about how well we have improved as a Council. They have had the power to direct us to do more, if they felt that necessary. They have never used these powers.
There is no good reason why these unelected Labour commissioners are needed.
We have always tried to work in partnership with the Government. Croydon has done its part. But now the Labour Government is saying that Croydon residents will have to take all the blame and consequences for what Labour’s own politicians did.
Labour is choosing to punish Croydon in a naked political attack.
When other councils ran into difficulty, they received direct support from the Labour Government. Just this year, Birmingham was handed £31 million in so-called “recovery grants”. Enfield, Hackney, Lambeth, Lewisham, and ten other London Boroughs (nearly all run by Labour, none run by the Conservatives) all received millions of pounds as part of the same grant. Croydon did not receive a penny.
This double standard is as unfair as it is unjust. We are doing the hard work locally, and we have been honest about the road ahead. It is wrong that residents here should now face even more pain because of mistakes Labour politicians made, whilst other boroughs are bailed out.
It is clear for all to see that this is nothing but a political attack.
I will continue to make the case that Croydon deserves fair treatment. If the Labour Commissioners try to force Croydon’s residents to stomach more tax rises above the cap, or even more salami-slicing of services, I will oppose them every step of the way.
Jason Perry
Executive Mayor of Croydon
