Conservatives present ‘Council Report Card’ to mark six months of Labour-run Wandsworth

Wandsworth Council has been run by the Labour Party since May this year. This follows on from 44 years of Conservative Governance. As we approach the end of Labour’s first six months in office the Wandsworth Conservative Group has tabled a motion for debate at tonight’s Council meeting which sets out where the new Labour administration has made mistakes and proposing ways to get the Council back on track.

Cllr Will Sweet, Leader of the Wandsworth Conservative Group, had this to say: “We have tried to work constructively with the new Administration over the past six months in order to deliver for residents at this critical time. Instead of working together on behalf of residents the Labour Administration has abandoned the sensible approach that made Wandsworth Council work so well. At the Council tonight we will identify areas of concern and areas of failure and urge the Labour group to change course and work constructively for the benefit of residents.”

Full Text of the Motion

Getting the Council back on track

Wandsworth is a special place to live. For 44 years, local residents enjoyed high quality services, delivered by an accountable and efficient council which was focused on the needs of residents and charged the lowest average council tax in the country.

The Council regrets that, since the May 2022 election, the new Labour Administration has:

1. refused to honour its election pledge to cut Council Tax next year;
2. committed £1m to give its Leader extra staff, posts which are unexplained and were not required under the previous Administration;
3. committed £15m of reserves to new programmes without identifying savings elsewhere;
4. cancelled the popular summer pedestrianisation of Northcote Road, ignoring a petition of 5,000 residents and a deputation of concerned businesses;
5. boycotted the opening of Battersea Power Station and talked down the Nine Elms Regeneration which will deliver over 20,000 new homes and 25,000 new jobs;
6. cancelled the Alton estate regeneration scheme, letting residents down by causing years of delay to new homes, jobs and community facilities, which the Administration’s own paper admits will have “negative equality impacts” (Paper 22-253);
7. introduced a new housing policy, which the Administration’s own paper admits “compared to the existing policy, in absolute terms, this will mean fewer units available for letting, which will have a direct impact on allocations and housing queues” (Paper 22-399);
8. burdened the Housing Revenue Account with £268m in debt, raising the prospect that the Account’s business plan may prove unviable, compromising the funds required to maintain council housing stock;
9. deleted a series of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) from the Council’s Corporate Plan, meaning that performance in key service areas will not be publicly reported in open committee;
10. taken the unprecedented step of awarding Wandsworth Grant Fund monies, in a manner which circumvents the democratic scrutiny of the Grants Sub-Committee; and
11. failed to find a sustainable solution to hire bikes parked obstructively on pavements.

The new Administration’s approach places ideology above achieving better outcomes for residents – particularly the most vulnerable. It demonstrates a disregard for prudent financial management and a disdain for transparency.

The Conservative Opposition stands ready and willing to engage constructively with the new Administration to deliver the best outcomes for residents. This has included:

1. proposing additional measures to ensure value for money by tracking performance in key council areas – voted down in Committee by Labour councillors;
2. seeking to strengthen the Administration’s cost of living support package by monitoring of the impact of spend on outcomes for residents - opposed by the Administration;
3. seeking to equalise parental leave - persuading the Administration to support the amendment;
4. offering to work together to find ways to make the Northcote Road scheme financially sustainable - ignored by the Administration;
5. offering to cooperate in arranging ad hoc meetings of the Grants Sub-Committee so that funding can be democratically scrutinised without delaying them - ignored by the Administration.
6. proposing a plan for designation hire bikes parking bays with tough fines for hire bike companies for non-compliance – voted down in Committee by Labour councillors.

This Council urges the Administration to change course, adopt policies which value outcomes for residents over ideology, transparency over secrecy and collaboration with all members of the Council so that residents get the best possible results.