Hulme Green Party Alternate Budget

Hulme Green Party believes the budget proposals suggested by Manchester City Council starts in the wrong place. Cutting frontline services and creating unemployment only adds to the problems created by this Coalition Government. This Council should not be scaring their staff into unemployment by forcing unfair redundancy packages on them.

Below is an idea about how the budget could be approached.

* The figures are units of millions.

Years	2011/12	2012/13	2014/15
Details				Total
CUTS
Staffing and efficiency (1)	10*	10	10	30
First Street Cultural Facility (2)	9	10		19
Football Museum (3)	7			7
Subtotal	26	20	10	56
INCOME
Mcr Airport (4)	27	27	27	81
Birley Fields (5)	7			7
Mcr City Stadium (6)	15	15		30
Subtotal	49	42	27	118
Total	75	62	37	174

We believe that by looking at cuts AND assets, jobs and services can be safeguarded in Manchester.

The CUTS section of the table shows areas where spending can be reduced. The INCOME section shows where money can be raised from council assets.

1) We in the Hulme Green Party believe that if cuts are to be made, jobs should go by a recruitment freeze along with voluntary redundancies. The Council is already planning to reduce costs through efficiency savings.

2) The planned ‘Cultural Facility’ (page 18) should be a lower priority than jobs and services.

3) The planned spend of nearly £7 million by the Council when the 2 richest football clubs in the country are in the city does not seem a good use of money.

4) Manchester Airport repayment of the debt to the Council it owes over 3 years. The amount owed is £83 million

5) A repayment in cash from MMU for the land acquired from the Council for its planned campus development. The land is estimated to be worth £10 million. The council gave the land away for free.

6) The Council owns the City of Manchester stadium at Eastlands, where Manchester City Football Club play. Selling a portion to fans of the club will raise a significant amount of money. If the council were to sell the stadium to Manchester City, who have offered to buy it from them, it would raise between £200 – 300 million pounds, possibly more. It would solve the budget crisis in one sale.

By doing this, the Council will be able to maintain employment while the predicted growth in Greater Manchester creates the hoped for 74000 jobs (slide 26).

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Manchester Budget Cuts Proposals and the Consultation Process: The Green View

Manchester City Council’s budget cuts, will have a huge effect on communities in Manchester.

BUT the announcements made are just proposals. They are available to comment on the Council website until February 22^nd.

Final decisions will be made on March 9^th 2011.

The Hulme Green Party says that

“Although the Council Cuts proposals are online, there are a lot of papers and they are difficult to understand.

We call for a series of public meetings for the organisations and the communities affected.

The Council, the organisations and the people should talk about the hard choices ahead and the best way to support the communities affected.

We especially urge the Council to be open and honest in this process. As far as we can tell, the results of the Councils earlier budget plan consultation, which ended January 17^th 2011, remain unpublished.”

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Manchester Cuts: A severe blow

There is no doubting the severity of the cuts announced by Manchester City Council.

While its understood that budget reductions have been imposed from the Coalition Government, the Council’s pledge to defend front line services is nonsense.

Cutting the majority of youth services and SureStarts in Manchester, then hoping the voluntary sector could take over them could make sense. Unfortunately the voluntary sector is being slashed by 22%.

In Hulme and Moss Side its expected that at least Hulme Library, the Martenscroft SureStart Centre, debt advice service and youth centres will go.

There has been no call to local groups and unions to discuss the best way of saving services, no consultation on how to support the most vulnerable in our communities.

Add this to the increase in charges from Council services and Housing Trusts, VAT increase, cuts to Manchester Advice services, reduced support available from Job Centres, it is not a stretch to imagine serious hardship coming back to Manchester. The Council wrings its hands and says there is nothing to be done yet the Airport owes it £83 million.

And when the dust settles, the Council will look to cut another £60 million next year.

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