A meeting of the Labour cabinet takes place on Monday 7th August and will be a watershed moment for how the council is run over the next few years. The long-awaited Local Government Association (LGA) report into Hastings Borough Council finances has finally been published and it makes for very uncomfortable reading.
Labour’s narrative has always been Hastings Borough Council don’t get enough government funding and that is why it is struggling. But they now tell us that the council has enough money and would be in good financial shape if it wasn’t for temporary accommodation costs.
The Labour run council is floundering and running out of excuses as to why it finds itself in dire financial difficulty. Blaming all its troubles on temporary accommodation costs is an oversimplification.
I have had the privilege of being a councillor for the past seven years. During that time, I have witnessed all the mistakes and budget overspends that have gone before. For the past six years I have seen Labour budgets using up reserves to balance the books and a reluctance to face up to financial reality.
The Labour administration were warned five years ago that temporary accommodation costs were spiralling but did nothing to consider lessening those costs until last year when it finally set up a special task force to look into ways to control spending. To quote the report, “In interviews the LGA team heard that the political leadership is passionate about housing issues but does not consider the financial situation sufficiently.”
It is ironic that of the many financial failures the Labour council has presided over, the York Buildings debacle is on the same cabinet agenda on Monday.
Six years ago, I voted against the council spending £780,000 to renovate the Grade II listed York Buildings which would provide 6 one bed flats in Wellington Place. It made no financial sense at all. Costs ballooned out of control to £1.1 million but councillors were still told this was a marvellous scheme which would provide much needed social housing in the town centre.
After the renovations were completed, these properties have laid empty and dormant for nearly two years. After repeated questions being asked at full council meetings councillors have now been told, “after much consideration it has been concluded that due to the unique nature of the property it is unsuitable for social housing delivery.”
It has taken six years, £1.1 million, countless council officer hours, consultancy fees, and loan interest on an empty building to come to this conclusion. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to conclude it is not only temporary accommodation costs which are sinking the council’s finances.
