News: Jason Kitcat on the Greens’ mid-term report

Brighton & Hove City Council leader Jason Kitcat on the Greens’ mid-term report

Earlier this year we passed the two year point of our Green council administration’s four year term. So I was really proud to recently launch with colleagues our mid-term report showing what we’ve achieved in this time.

Despite huge government-imposed budget cuts of around 40 per cent over four years, we’ve not only protected many of the poorest people in our city from the brunt of the Coalition’s cuts, but we have also improved many services for those most in need. In fact, we’ve completed more than half of what we pledged to do in our manifesto, and overall three quarters of our pledges are done or in progress.

Major achievements include our early introduction of the Living Wage for lowest-paid staff at the council and reducing the gap between the top and bottom earners to just over 10:1. We saw the best ever GCSE results this summer, at a time when national results are falling.

Additionally all the data shows that our actions have helped to protect our local economy from the worst of the recession.

We’re rolling out communal recycling bins across the city centre to turn around the previous Conservative administration’s trend of falling recycling rates, and have installed solar panels on council buildings to cut energy bills.

Sadly the austerity consensus of the three main parties at Westminster is set to continue with further cuts to local services until at least 2020, regardless of whether it’s Conservatives, Labour in power. We urge both Conservatives and Labour to rethink their policies for local communities.

Despite the challenges, we’ve achieved much of what we promised the electorate we would, and we look forward to continuing to fulfil our pledges in the coming two years.