West Norfolk Labour councillors have praised the government for diverting extra funds to the borough council.
This has meant that the council has not had to eat into reserves as much as feared, and gives us a comfortable cushion in the coming years.
The Labour government’s announcement that councils can keep 100% of the business rates from renewable energy projects, such as wind and solar farms, means the council has done well, getting an extra £3.69 million from business rates.
Cllr Deborah Heneghan, the Labour group leader, said: “When I saw the final settlement, I was delighted as, despite previous concerns from the council’s leaders, we had actually done very well.
“The funding the council has received puts it on a secure footing and gives us much-needed stability. That leads to us having real options.
“This Labour government has delivered for this council by providing funding and certainty, and now is the time for this council to deliver for our residents.”
The Labour group supported the council budget at the budget-setting meeting on Thursday 26 February.
Cllr Heneghan said: “We did support this budget for the reason that it is a requirement that we pass a legal budget, and not doing so could have financial, administrative and legal implications for this council.
“While the council has managed to balance the books, in my opinion the budget could have been more ambitious.”
When the Labour government took power, it pledged to enact long-overdue reforms to local government funding — through the first multi-year Local Government Finance Settlement in a decade.
The new settlement is about fairness, and it delivers on these four manifesto commitments:
- To give councils multi-year funding deals;
- To realign funding with need and deprivation;
- To simplify funding and end wasteful competitive bidding;
- To reset the business rates retention system.
Labour councillors have been pushing to get money spent where it is needed for several months now.
Back in November last year, the Labour group submitted a modest set of measures to address antisocial behaviour, improve welfare and tackle fly-tipping by providing ways to dispose of waste responsibly.
The proposals included free bulky waste collection, a health and wellbeing bus, and funding for more litter bins for King’s Lynn.
These were all measures that were highlighted by residents as being important to them.
Bulky waste collection is especially important, with a report issued by Defra this week revealing that fly-tipping in England has reached a record high.
All of Labour’s proposals were rejected by the council administration at the time, in early February, because they said the Fair Funding Review had apparently given this council a kicking, and thus all such requests were off the table.
The administration’s fears about the lack of funding turned out to be unfounded, once the totality of the government’s settlement became clear.
Then, a few days later, Labour councillors spotted an underspend in the budget of £383,000.
Labour suggested the money not be put into general reserves, as the administration intended to do, but instead be made available to spend in 2026/27 on one-off projects.
Labour’s idea was rejected at the time, but it seems it did not die, but reappeared in different guise — with the council administration now proposing an allocation of £500,000 for a community projects scheme, giving councillors of all parties and none the opportunity to apply for one-off projects.
Cllr Josh Osborne, the Labour group’s deputy leader, said: “I am very pleased to see this proposal, as it will allow councillors to put forward new ideas for our communities. This has been made possible by a better-than-expected government settlement. We in Labour will certainly be asking our residents for their views.”
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