Councillors criticised Labour’s cuts to the 2025 to 2026 budget at a Hackney Council meeting last Wednesday (26 February), saying that residents are ‘desperate’.
Areas affected by the cuts include the voluntary and community sector, youth services and public health. The latter has particularly suffered from many years of increased cuts – it has lost nearly £3m over three years.
“We need to reverse the cuts this administration is proposing, which would remove affordable childcare and essential library hours.”
Alastair Binnie-Lubbock, a Green Party councillor, said: “We need to reverse the cuts this administration is proposing, which would remove affordable childcare and essential library hours.”
Binnie-Lubbock addressed problems that the cuts would cause: “We’ve got huge difficulties in adult social care, temporary accommodation, and SEND provision. How do you justify this to families living in over-crowded situations? People are desperate.”
He then outlined the Green Party’s major amendments, which were enacting borough-wide landlord licensing and implementing a hotel levy to reflect the “true cost of tourism”, which means making sure its benefits are felt locally.
Zoë Garbett, a Green Party councillor, further criticised the current housing situation, saying “Londoners are routinely being told they face a 15-year wait for rehousing”.
Penny Wrout, an HISG councillor, raised concerns about the Labour’s proposed £820,000 cuts to the voluntary and community sector, saying they would be “too heavy”.
She expressed concerns about the current funding model from central government, which only assists councils when they’re “on the brink of disaster”.
Wrout said: “Last week, six London councils got last-minute bailouts, and Hackney was not one of them. That’s not because we’re in a financial comfort zone, but because we don’t yet sit on the cliff edge of bankruptcy.”
Caroline Woodley, Mayor of Hackney, defended Labour’s cuts by explaining why they have had to be made.
She said: “The reason we’re now having to take these tough decisions is owing to a huge cut in our funding of £150m. At the same time, we’ve witnessed such a significant increase in the demand for and costs of many services.”
Simche Steinberger, a Conservative councillor, criticised Labour for wasting money: “It’s the first year when your government has been empowered, and it seems that you’ve touched all the reserves from other years.” He said that the party’s ability to waste money is “just unbelievable”.
The Conservatives’ amendments included reducing the highway maintenance budget, stopping the zero emissions network and reducing waste strategy staffing.
Responding to the repeated calls for a borough-wide landlord licensing scheme, Sem Moema, a Labour councillor, assured her fellow councillors that “this Labour administration [has] a commitment to moving forward proposals for a borough-wide licensing scheme in due course”.
Woodley said that the budget would “[create] opportunities” and “[support] the most vulnerable in the most challenging of times”.
Sarah Smith is a postgraduate Newspaper Journalism student at City St George's, University of London. She is currently reporting on the Springfield ward in Hackney. She has experience writing for the Climate, Books, Lifestyle and News sections of The Boar, and she has also done work experience at Essex Live. In her spare time, she likes to watch Disney films and spend time with friends.