As each new announcement in the local press confirms, Nottingham residents and service users continue to bear the brunt of the Labour-controlled city council’s failure to balance the budget. Nottingham Green Party opposes the cuts and instead calls for a fair settlement that meets the needs of the city, and puts our most vulnerable communities first.
Council tax bills are set to increase by almost 5% this year. Libraries face closure or reduced operating hours. From Sneinton to Sherwood and across the city, community centres are being asked to find their own funding for much-needed repairs or risk reducing essential services. To top this off, at the end of January national broadcaster Channel Four reported on the threat to supported accommodation, leaving residents at city housing facilities operated by Framework Housing Association feeling scared and vulnerable.
The Labour council’s approach is only to point out that things could have been worse. As quoted by The Nottingham Post, the council leader indicates that the predicted budget gap could have been much higher than the current prediction of £56 million. We believe could have been worse is nowhere near good enough. The city deserves a council that puts the city and its residents first, and we urge the council to work closely with the regional mayor and with government to release the funding required to put things right. The Green Party supports a wealth tax that would rebalance society by using the profits of billionaires to meet communities’ basic needs.
This is why we have consistently campaigned against the cuts, called for a balanced budget, and continue to stand up for services in the city. During 2024, Green Party members from across the city joined with fellow campaigners, trades unions, and the one city councillor who has shown the courage to stand up for local residents at talks, events, and public demonstrations demanding an end to the cuts.
Nottingham Green Party Against the Cuts
In December, we spoke out in support at a public meeting with community centre users and service providers, and in January, we lobbied councillors before meetings deciding the fates of libraries and community centres. Our members have submitted citizens’ questions to the next full meeting of the council, and we expect answers, just as every councillor’s constituents demand more and better from their elected officials.
In February, local Green Party member Cath Sutherland wrote a detailed and empassioned letter to the Nottingham Post. In her letter, which we post in full below, Cath points out that “cuts to vital services are happening under a Labour government, with a new Labour Regional Mayor, and a Labour City Council.” This is why our campaign continues – because, as Greens, we are passionate about social justice and supporting all those in the city seeking the services they need to make their lives liveable.
We are welcoming new Green Party members every week and building the base we need to get Greens elected, whether in the forthcoming elections to the county council in Gedling and Rushcliffe, or in 2027, when we aim to hold the current Labour administration to account and give Nottingham the city council it deserves.
What Can I Do to Stand Up for Nottingham’s Services?
- Read Cath’s letter below
- Follow what’s happening in the local press and online media (Nottinghamshire Live/The Nottingham Post, Notts TV and West Bridgford Wire) and on local radio and television
- Watch Darshna Soni’s Channel Four report on the impact on supported housing residents
- Contact your concillors and MPs by writing to them and letting them know your concerns
- Lobby the next council meeting – from 4pm on 3rd March 2025 at the Old Market Square entrance
- Submit a Citizen’s Question to be asked at the next council meeting
- Join the Green Party and become part of the movement for Real Hope, Real Change
- Make a donation. Every donation, however small, helps build momentum to get Greens elected
Letter to Nottingham Post 1st February 2025
by Cath Sutherland, Nottingham Green Party
Congratulations to Oliver Pridmore and everyone at Nottingham Post who have been running the ‘Protect Nottingham Community Centres’ campaign, and publicising the terrible losses for our city communities.
I was saddened to read on Friday that Rise Park Community Centre is going to be demolished and not replaced; and very shocked to read earlier in the week about the probable closure of two Framework residential facilities for homeless people, where many people are helped to rehabilitate themselves and get a new start at life.
It hardly needs to be said how these cuts hurt the most vulnerable, and many members of our communities who need a bit of support, as well as people who depend on their weekly outing to a community centre for a much-needed bit of company.
Margaret Thatcher said “There is no such thing as society”. Her vision was of everyone going to work, then going home and spending their money, and not needing or wanting anything else from other people in their area. But human beings are sociable animals. We need the company of other people, as well as help from others at certain stages of life, and the opportunity to get together to tackle problems together. Community centres play a vital role in enabling these things to happen.
On Monday evening I lobbied the Council outside Nottingham Council House as part of ‘Save Our Services 24’, and then I went into the Council House to observe a few minutes of the full council meeting.
I was shocked that no councillors expressed outrage or sadness or horror at the position they have been put in by the government, of having to cut so many desperately needed services for so many people in Nottingham. In fact the opposite – they made positive congratulatory announcements about very small increases in some of the funding streams the government have awarded, tiny increases that don’t begin to correct the huge cuts we have faced over the last 10 years. The councillors praised the government for these tiny increases, and took the opportunity to bash the Tories in the way that we have heard so much of in the last 7 months that it is becoming extremely repetitive. We already know the Tories messed up. The question is “How is Labour going to put things right?”.
The Labour government had a budget in October. That was the opportunity to put back the funds into cities like Nottingham that have a high need for council services but are suffering continuing austerity. It can’t really be denied that this is continuing austerity in Nottingham, under a Labour government, as social care packages are cut, community centres and libraries are cut, council housing is sold off and maybe even centres for the homeless are cut.
The councillors on Monday night appeared to me to be more loyal to their political party, their tribe, than they are to the people of Nottingham. If they weren’t putting their party first then why didn’t they criticise the government for not allocating more desperately needed funds for our local services, and why didn’t they demand more emergency government funding?
The cuts to vital services are happening under a Labour government, with a new Labour Regional Mayor, and a Labour City Council.
The fact that a Labour government is continuing this austerity is because they have boxed themselves in with some stupid commitments and policies. Why did they rule out a wealth tax? Why don’t they put more windfall taxes on the oil companies? Why do they continue to insist that the only way out of austerity is to be a doormat for big business in the hope that big business will make the economy grow? The new government has set out on this course of being subservient to the demands of multinationals, and that won’t change now.
Many economists think that cutting public spending is no way to achieve growth, that investing in big infrastructure projects will be more successful. Numerous economists also say that growth will never be achieved unless the very rich are taxed more heavily, and policies are put in place to stop the top 1% siphoning £billions off the economy and putting the money in tax havens. The extra money will never be there to improve local services.
Anyone who had the pleasure of hearing the economist Gary Stephenson talking at The Nottingham Playhouse on Monday night (27th January) will remember him saying that public services will never be properly financed until the government puts more taxes on the rich, which this government isn’t doing. He said “The fire-brigade isn’t coming, it isn’t coming”. It isn’t coming to Nottingham.
So under this Labour government we can expect Nottingham to continue to suffer this miserable austerity. The least our local councillors could do is call the government out.