Leader’s
Notes
“The way public services
are delivered must change
in Ealing.”
Councillor Julian Bell
Leader of the council
Government cuts and a huge increase in demand for social care mean the
way public services are delivered must change in Ealing. Rather than
spreading our ever-dwindling resources across many services, we are proposing to
start again and take a fresh look at how we could provide fewer, better targeted
services that make more of an impact.
Even if we make these changes, the scale of the challenge we are facing means that
we cannot do this work alone. At our Talk Future Ealing roadshow this summer and
autumn, 62% of people who filled in our survey said they would be willing to help
through activities such as volunteering, recycling more or helping an elderly neighbour.
We will certainly need your support. As Around Ealing was going to press, the council
was discussing how it might close a funding gap of £57million. It is an incredibly tough
challenge. Since 2010 the council has lost £143million from its government grant. This
is a drop of almost two-thirds and is greater than the London and national averages.
At the same time, demand for our services is higher than it has ever been. For
example, £232,000 is now being spent every day on adult social care alone.
As you can read on page 18,
the council has an ambitious
target for building genuinely
affordable new homes by March
2022. It wants to see 2,500 built
– more than 1,100 directly by the
council and the rest in partnership
with private developers. Our target
has been recognised by the Mayor
of London as the highest in the
capital and, as a result, he has
awarded us a grant of nearly
£100million towards our
construction programme. It places
Ealing at the forefront of the fight
against the housing crisis.
Christmas is always a critical
time for local businesses and
spending your money locally will
help our town centres to survive
and thrive. There should be lots of
activities this December at shops
near you, so why not take a look at
ealingnewsextra.co.uk/features/
Christmas2018 to find out more?
I hope you all have an enjoyable
Christmas.
However, the council is legally obliged to present a balanced budget. This means we will
have to make significant changes to how we operate to avoid the doomsday scenario
of going bust. We will publish some budget plans in December and consultations will
take place in the first part of 2019; but I urge everyone to find out how you can help
by visiting the Bubble community website at www.dosomethinggood.org.uk
around ealing December 2018
5