David Blunkett’s name is back in the debate over London funding as Paul Swaddle warned Andy Burnham not to weaken the capital while trying to make funding fairer for the rest of England. Westminster Council is now facing huge council tax increases after a reevaluation of government funding left it with a £100 million blackhole.
Steve Reed resigned as housing secretary on Monday as the new prime minister entered No 10. In his resignation letter, he said: “I’m proud to be a London MP and I’ll always fight to ensure London is treated fairly as you explore new models of devolution, taxation and funding.”
Westminster Council and London
Reed also said he had “strengthened planning reforms to speed up housebuilding across the country, with a radical acceleration package for London where housebuilding had ground to a near-halt under the Conservatives.” He added: “I’m proud we built more new council homes last year than in any other year for 40 years when records first began.”
That leaves a clear policy choice for the new PM. Wealthier London people have already been braced for tax rises, and Rachel Reeves announced that Labour will be implement a new mansion tax on properties valued at over £2 million. Any change to devolution, taxation or funding for London would feed directly into how the capital pays for services and how the rest of England is balanced against it.
Paul Swaddle and No 10
Swaddle told the new PM that “the route to a stronger national economy cannot be to diminish London.” He also wrote that “The UK does not have a London problem. It has a national growth problem. A stronger Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool, Newcastle, Cardiff, Glasgow and Belfast are essential to the country’s future.”
He said weakening the capital would “reduce the tax base, investment pull, visitor economy and global competitiveness on which the whole country depends,” and argued that “the government should review existing policy areas that would cut across the growth mission.” For Westminster Council, the immediate pressure is financial; for London, the next step is whether No 10 chooses a funding plan that shifts money without driving deeper costs onto the capital’s taxpayers.
