The chaos and incompetence at the heart of this Conservative Government is causing real problems for families in Crawley. Our NHS is on its knees, too much crime goes unpunished, and like all local authorities, our services are being put under intolerable pressure by ministers’ refusal to accept reality. Here in Crawley the council is receiving £8.9m less support annually from central government in real terms than we did under Labour – and our overall spending power has fallen by 69%.

Now, just days before councils set the most difficult budget in years, and many months after the cross party Local Government Association warned that soaring demand for social care and temporary accommodation was posing an existential risk to council budgets, the government has finally backtracked on its catastrophic Local Government Finance Settlement for 2024/25 and announced some extra funding – but it’s just more sticking plaster politics.

Ironically what’s proposed is such an inadequate rise, it doesn’t even cover a week’s worth of the growing costs of homelessness to the council.

Crawley deserves so much more than this.  Our area is still not getting a fair deal.

Local councils are stuck in a Tory doom loop, on the front-line of the Tory cost of living crisis and unable to plan for the future.

This is total failure from an increasingly chaotic Conservative government that has sole responsibility for pushing so many local councils to breaking point over the last 14 years.

We cannot trust the same party that made this mess to patch it up. Councils of all stripes are on the brink of financial ruin.

After a decade of Tory economic mismanagement, compounded by spiralling inflation and a failure to grow our economy, councils, residents and taxpayers are crying out for security and stability that only a Labour government can deliver with our long-term ambition for multi-year funding settlements underpinned by strong accountability.

What we really need is a government that has a proper plan. Our country needs the security and stability that only a new government can deliver. The only real solution is a General Election now.

Cllr Michael Jones

Leader, Crawley Borough Council