According to the Conservatives’ 2009 report How Conservative Councils are helping in the recession, “David Cameron has made it clear that the Conservatives will bring a culture of thrift to government. But Conservative councils are already making a difference by instilling a culture of thrift in local government finance”. And on Nottinghamshire County Council, for example, Conservative council leader Kay Cutts claims that hers is a “no frills, bread-and-butter administration”.

Yet on winning control of the council from Labour in June 2009, Cutts promptly redecorated the ruling group’s offices at a cost to the taxpayer of £11,000 and increased the cabinet wage bill by £168,000. Other such steps included redesigning the council’s logo, removing stained glass windows depicting local industries, covering up a memorial to the Spanish Civil War dead and removing a memorial dedicated to the Child Migrants Trust because it was not sufficiently “positive”.

Cutts then ditched the council’s costed spending plans and proposed that council tax rates be frozen until at least 2013 whilst insisting that she would “make sure that [people] will be looked after”. The council’s 2010/11 budget proposals prescribed £31 million of cuts in services, including such ‘frills’ as welfare rights advice, care for the physically and mentally disabled, a community minibus scheme and waste recycling centres. It also plans to sell off all thirteen of its residential homes for the elderly, increase charges for home care and meals-on-wheels and cut funding for school buses, extra-curricular activities, sports and cultural centres, libraries and concessionary train and bus fares. UNISON has accused the council of exaggerating budgetary pressures in order to make the case for the cuts, which could involve around 1,400 redundancies. Meanwhile, the council’s own survey found that 67% of residents felt that the council had previously been spending the “right amount” or “not enough” on children’s social care. 73% felt this way about social care for the elderly, 73% about care for the physically disabled, 76% about support for schools and 80% about care for the mentally disabled.

Cutts has blamed the government for the need for savings (despite her £9 million rates freeze and a £8.5 million increase to the council’s 2010/11 grant from central government) and sent the council’s Chief Executive out to face protesters in order to avoid compromising her ‘neutrality’. Her decision to create a new council communications role at £71,000 per year has also attracted criticism, as has her refusal to meet with trade union representatives.

The media, trade unions and opposition politicians have noted that the burden of the cuts is concentrated on the most vulnerable: the poor, elderly and disabled. The BBC’s Politics Show reported that 90-year-old Irene D’Arcy, who “needs help with washing and getting out of bed” will have to pay over 35% more for essential home help. This, the BBC reports, would “amount to more than her pension and she simply cannot afford it”.

Meanwhile, 78-year old Noreen Swepston will have to find the money for taxis if, as planned, the community transport service is axed: “For someone like me [the service] is invaluable. […] It’s the social side – the aspect of socialising with other people means a lot to me. I’ve got to do something to relieve the monotony of talking to myself.” UNISON has argued that the increases in transport, meals and daycare charges will mean that “some older people could easily be paying £5 per day more in charges”. By contrast, the wealthiest (Band H) ratepayers will enjoy a tax cut of £1.85 per week. The Conservatives’  ’culture of thrift’, it seems, hits some people harder than others.

| Category East Midlands, Public Services