Swindon Labour leader Jim Robbins considers the economic situation

This Halloween season has seen some scary sights as the Government appears to lurch from crisis to crisis, crashing the economy and causing bills to rise for the public who were already in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis.

The fact that the Government are making it worse rather than better really is like a Halloween-horror movie.

The hit to mortgages, energy bills, rental costs as well as the inflation rate is going to put real pressure on people to get through this winter, and unfortunately the bad financial news is coming from the local Conservatives as well as their national partners.

At the recent Swindon Borough Council Cabinet meeting, we discovered that the council’s Conservative administration are really worried about how they will close the budget gap for this year and have voted to stop all non-essential spending.

Shockingly, when I asked at the meeting what this meant, they hadn’t worked out what was non-essential spend.

After a long pause, the cabinet member offered up public engagement as an example of a potential cut.

I’m shocked that the council could even suggest this following the recent criticism they received over their public engagement during a recent peer review by the Local Government Association.

I know that the future Labour-led administration will be focused on improving and extending public engagement, as we know how important it is to work in conjunction with partners when you have limited budgets to use. We want to harness the experience, knowledge, and passion of local residents to help us build a better Swindon.

Following on from the worrying spending freeze, at the recent Scrutiny Committee meeting we questioned the Conservative Cabinet on what this meant for the council’s long-term future and were concerned to hear that the council can only last for a further two to three years if the administration keep spending reserves at their current levels, less time if any of our big liabilities such as the pension deficit or the Schools’ Fund overspend is called in.

The Labour group is now working on plans for how we can keep the council afloat and try to repay some of the £350m of debt that the current administration has lumbered the council with.

With interest rates on the rise, the cost of servicing this debt is sure to rise as well.

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