Lambeth Council has warned that essential services could be pushed to ‘barebones’ by a £93million funding gap, as anti-austerity campaigns rally trade unions and workers across the capital.
The council says its new campaign, Services Worth Fighting For, is intended to defend already-strained frontline services, including housing, social care and children’s services, from the ‘devastating austerity’ of Labour’s new funding reforms, which they say have reduced funding by 30%.
The Fair Funding Review is the government’s overhaul of how central funds are distributed to English councils, and is calculated using a relative needs formula which aims to re-allocate finances towards areas which score lower in poverty calculation categories.
However, Michael Chessum, Lambeth Council’s Cabinet Member for Economy, Cost of Living and Empowered Communities, said: “Austerity has been the dominant reality in our lives. We’re spending £100million on housing the homeless, and 31% of children in this borough live in poverty.
“We provide lifeline services which are already at barebones and, without them, there will be real social and human consequences.
“This isn’t just lines on a balance sheet; we’re talking about people’s lives.”
The campaign launch followed a national anti-austerity summit held in Hackney Town Hall on the 9 September, which saw 250 councillors, trade unionists and campaigners gather to discuss the severity of the financial situation.
Lambeth and Hackney are both currently under Green Party control.
Image Credit: Socialist Worker
Mayor of Hackney, Zoë Garbett, said at the event: “Year after year, our residents have been suffering as a result of an ongoing cost-of-living and austerity crisis.”
Chessum, the voice behind Services Worth Fighting For, attended the summit alongside the Secretary of Lambeth Unison, Simon Hannah.
Image Credit: Sean Pollock and Hackney Council
Trade union representatives also spoke at the event.
Jordan Rivera, the Unison Union branch secretary at Homerton Hospital, explained the impact she has seen of budget cuts on key services and called upon trade unions to take industrial action in defence of services.
She said: “I’ve supported NHS members being made redundant, and I’ve seen my daughter go through having her school closed last year.
“We have power in our workplaces, that we need to be prepared to use by striking.”
Paul Williams, of the UK’s community and renter’s union ACORN, also argued poverty and insecurity created by austerity have damaged trust across society.
The Summit ended with the calling of an Anti-Austerity March to Downing Street on the 27 October, the eve of Parliament’s October Budget announcement.
Photo Credit: Ken Muller on Facebook
Ken Muller, a retired teacher and one of the organisers of the Budget Day Protest, said: “We have the support of the trade council, the NEU union branch and four Unison union branches, with more backing expected in the coming days.”
Unison was the third-largest donor to the Labour Party in 2024. Their public backing of these Green-led demonstrations sparks questions regarding the union’s stance on Labour’s economic policies.
“We are dissatisfied with the austerity policies carried out under the Labour government,” said Muller.
He spoke of a close liaison between campaigning bodies, with Lambeth joining forces with Hackney, and outreaching throughout London: “The demonstration began in Hackney, but is being spread from below. This is a grassroots, bottom-up development.”
Muller said they wanted to see governmental responsibility for frontline services:
“Austerity is attacking our living standards and decimating our public services.”
The Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government were approached for comment.
Feature image courtesy of Lambeth Council
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