IT'S always a pleasure to reply to letters from M Kozlowski, whose latest poser to me is to ask if I have lobbied Labour Shadow Minsters “to reverse the budget cuts which the Conservative led coalition have imposed on Bolton Council”.

The answer is an obvious — Yes! All Labour councils throughout the country, who have suffered massive cuts to their budgets by the Conservatives, have lobbied the Labour shadow cabinet on this subject. However I think M Kozlowski knows full well that if Labour wins the election next May, we have to deal with the budget we inherit and we have already stated that we will have to stick with the set spending plans for 2015/16, and therefore in the short term, at least, cannot reverse cuts to councils.

However that isn’t the end of the story. Local councils have been the hardest hit throughout the public sector, but within that, research by the Audit Commission, clearly shows that it is the areas in most need of government funding that have been hit the hardest. Therefore what Labour has said is that we will ensure that the allocation of money to local councils is distributed more evenly. Figures show that councils covering the most deprived areas of England have lost an average of £782 per household, whilst councils covering the richest areas are losing just £48 on average. This cannot be right in anyone’s view, and under a Labour Government, Bolton would be set to get a fairer share of funding.

The Tory ideological motive of hitting the most disadvantaged the hardest does not just apply to local government. The Tories have failed to apply any principal of fairness, either in the manner in which they have attempted to cut the deficit or attempted to run this country. They have introduced a Bedroom Tax, under the guise of benefit cuts, that mainly hits the disabled, and that ironically doesn’t save the country a penny! They have given tax cuts to the richest 1% of the population whilst allowing the most vulnerable in our society to go without basic services. They are presiding over an increasing low wage workforce whilst failing to deal with bank bonuses. Labour will tackle many of these examples of our unfair society head on. We are already committed to cancelling the millionaires tax cut and instead bring back a 10p rate of tax benefitting millions. We are committed to expanding apprenticeships and guaranteeing a job for all young people, paid for through a bank bonus tax. We will strengthen the minimum wage, get rid of zero hours contracts, scrap the bedroom tax, and expand free childcare for working parents. This is Labours ideology. We will always maintain that in the long term the only way to really reduce the deficit and balance the books is through economic growth, job creation and fair wages, as opposed to the current government’s ideology of massive cuts to services and poor wages. It’s their way of getting a quick fix to the nation’s finances; however there is one problem with this. It isn’t working!

It wasn’t over spending public services that got the country into the mess it’s in. It was an unregulated financial sector that ran amok with our money. Yes, Labour accepts that this happened on our watch, and we have learned lessons from that. But for the future, only Labour has the long term vision to restore our finances by investing in our people and investing in our economy.

Cllr Nick Peel

Tonge with the Haulgh Ward