All posts in the topic Credit where it's due... (Short link)
Summary
- There are 2 posts — by 2 authors — in this topic.
- Latest post made by Lane Taylor at Aug 01 11:05 UTC
"Turn on the TV and you’d be forgiven for feeling glum; the credit crunch is
all over the news. We are all feeling the pinch caused by international
influences, with food and fuel prices on the rise. Everything suggests that we
are heading for difficult times, but we in the council are continuing the hard
work we had already put in place to fight the effects of any economic downturn.
I know that this is a worrying time for many of us, but we are doing all we can
to relieve the pressure on our residents. I feel confident that, as a borough,
we will sail through the storm. We have the lowest council tax in outer London
and I am committed to keeping it that way; so much so that I will not raise our
portion of the tax for the next three years. I will also continue to campaign
for Newham to be recognised as an inner London borough, so that we receive the
greater settlement from Government that we deserve, which would fund more of
the excellent services that our residents can take advantage of now. It’s still
full steam ahead for the London 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games too,
which means that the jobs coming from their construction and delivery won’t be
affected by any downturn. While reports say that unemployment is rising,
Workplace, our employment scheme, has helped 830 local people into work in just
over a year. The same positive outlook extends to our big regeneration
projects, so residents can feel secure that this borough will continue to grow
in spite of any external events."
Taken from the Mayor's view Newham Mag 25 July 2008
Great stuff... what's his secret, he can make confident predictions for Newham
about an economic crisis that George Soros claims may well be the worse since
the Great Depression.
Nice claims about what we can expect for the future but a bit of evidence to
support his predictions wouldn't go amiss. And as for the "...continue to
campaign for Newham to be recognised as an inner London borough", how dumb does
he think people are: if he couldn't persuade the government to re-designate
Newham an inner London Borough when Gordon Brown was Chancellor, and the
Country under his stewardship of the economy was experiencing a period of
economic growth, Wales has a snowball's chance in Hell of pulling this off now.
Still not to worry, with some councillors on £40,000 plus at least the "crunch"
will be not so severe for them.
Mike and All Of course we need to remember, that while Newham has still not received that elusive 'inner London Borough status' (despite reasurance from Noo Labour Government ministers to review it), Newham is attracting a supplement from Central Government to the tune of £13,240,000 a year (for 3 years) to deal with its long term unemployed (some of the worst stats in the country). On the basis that this initiative has resulted in 830 people (at £16,000 each) is not to be faulted. In fact the costs of getting the Newham long term unemployed into a job at £16,000 a time, seems far more cost effective than keeping some Newham councillors in a job at £40,000 only to tell us that the 2112 Olympics is going to be our economic saviour. Source: http://www.newham.gov.uk/News/MayorWelcomesGovernmentFundingAnnouncment.htm On the 'inner London Borough status' ( http://apps.newham.gov.uk/aboutus/PositivelyinnerLondon.pdf ), I seem to recall that there was an annoucement not so long ago from either the Mayor, and/or one of the local MP's telling us it was more or less in the bag, once the responsible Noo Labour Minister had reviewed it. Perhaps others my have a link to that announcement ? Though all the Local Government Minister, John Healey, seems to have said is that he recognised it was a 'right and just case'. Source: http://www.newhamrecorder.co.uk/content/newham/recorder/tomduncan/story.aspx?brand=RECOnline&category=tomduncan&tBrand=reconline&tCategory=tomduncanNew&itemid=WeED13%20Dec%202007%2007%3A43%3A21%3A020