LibDem Group Leader Cllr Richard Sharp's reponse to Budget Statement by the Leader of Woking Borough Council

Mr Mayor, fellow Councillors, Ladies & Gentlemen.

I welcome this opportunity to respond briefly to the budget statement by the Leader which in the
past has not always been permitted. Let me review some of the areas that Cllr Kingsbury focussed on
in May 2011 as I'm sure he will wish to measure progress in these promises as is his norm at the
budget speech.

Low Council Tax
The nil increase in council tax is completely supported by the Liberal Democrats and as I said at the Executive earlier, we would have given officers the same brief in preparing this budget as the Conservatives did. In fact we would have insisted on it right from the draft papers. This nil increase is in stark contrast to the 2.99% increase voted for by the Conservative group at County Hall - there we can see the results of a significant Conservative majority. For once I have to agree with Eric Pickles who said, "Surrey's failure to get to grips with their finances has led to this rise and quite frankly why should the public pay the price for their poor financial management?"

Recycling
My group supports the recycling targets of this council and we work with officers and members in finding new ways to encourage people to reduce, reuse and recycle. Much has been done from when this council first introduced wheeled bins including the introduction of roadside glass
collection and separate street recycling bins from when we controlled the council. We encouraged the early involvement of this council in Surrey's food waste collection trial and we continue to support the council's efforts in this area on a cross‐party working basis.

Facilities for children and young people
Whenever there is a proposal for play, sports facilities or leisure all councillors will want to know the views of Cllr Ian Eastwood. His focus on this area and his expertise has even been acknowledged by the Leader of the Council when the leisure contract was awarded. We welcome the support from the Portfolio Holder for cross‐party working in this area and hope to continue to improve this provision in the future.

Community Buildings
Let me say clearly that my group has reviewed the community asset programme as we said we would and the programme has our full support - though we continue to wish to see New Homes Bonus funds making a difference where new house building is taking place.
Soon we will see the completion of the Hoe Valley scheme and I echo Councillor Kingsbury's comments from May - "an excellent example of how well both parties can work together when we try". Without the intervention of Liberal Democrat councillors this scheme would have been
postponed and with our oversight we will see a major investment project delivered ahead of schedule and beneath budget. Economic Development There are times my group has expressed concerns on the details of the economic development investments made by the council (for example we did not want to see the library shut and we had hoped for new and high footfall retailers for the Wolsey Place extension to bring more shoppers into our town centre) but we support this being a priority for this council and the strength of our support will become apparent over the coming months as new investments come forward.

Affordable Housing
This council has plans for affordable housing that are unfortunately being hampered by Central Government. Though our Moor Lane PFI scheme has passed numerous new hurdles and not been rejected as other proposals have by Central Government, the delay in this programme is appalling. I can only hope the latest schedule will be held to.

In addition the Liberal Democrats argue that the Conservative leadership of this council has not insisted that Thameswey through its housing subsidiary is clearly focussed on affordable housing provision and has left it with too broad a business plan.

While I welcome the end of the negative housing subsidy as I'm sure the Leader does I cannot agree with the Coalition Government's decision in the Housing Strategy to offer a discount of as much as half the value of their homes to Right‐to‐buy owners. I remain unconvinced that this council will have the funds to ensure homes sold through right‐to‐buy will be matched by new homes developed for social rent. This Right‐to‐buy policy introduced by Horace Cutler (who disagreed with the concept of local authorities as providers of housing and supported a free market approach) through the then Conservative controlled GLC has become Conservative national policy and has seen this country's social housing provision decimated and the extension of this policy risks making things even worse.

Environment
This council could have led with a significant solar panel installation scheme if Conservative members had not blocked officers from bringing a scheme forward for so long. While this area is one in which cross‐party working has historically made the environment a priority in Woking, I'm afraid that the only way you can get green from blue is to add some yellow!

Summary
In summary I hope this response is seen to show that the Liberal Democrat group is supportive of the priorities of this council and its key policies. A year ago Cllr Kingsbury remarked that we enter into a debate as we enter elections that "does not concentrate on the great success we have had together in this Council but on our minor differences". So although Conservative literature is already implying that we would not have delivered a council tax freeze and that we are drifting further and further to the left we will not get distracted by this nonsense and remain focussed on delivering the best possible outcomes for Woking residents.

Although there is not a formal coalition in Woking I'm sure that residents will see that when the Conservative group claim a shiny success for their group alone, if they look closely they will find sticky Liberal Democrat fingerprints all over it.