All Councils in England are required by law to set a balanced budget each year. Walsall Council is no different. Former Cllrs Dan Barker and Ian Shires Over the past 15 years the Council has had to make savings of around £285 million. Partly because of reductions in the grant funding they received off central […]

5 hours to go until we get to know exactly what the Autumn Budget has in store for us. At around 12.30pm today Rachel Reeves will stand at the dispatch box in the House of Commons and deliver the Labour Government’s Budget Statement. It will be the first from a Labour Chancellor for 14 years. […]

Since the election, our MPs have been working tirelessly to stand up for the public’s concerns and be local champions for their constituencies. We’ve opposed cuts to the Winter Fuel Allowance and pushed the Government to act faster and bolder on issues neglected by the Conservative Government. On sewage, our recent analysis revealed an increase in water […]

Parliament has been in full swing since the Conference recess, and our MPs have been busy delivering on our mandate. With 72 MPs filling the green benches, our presence is clear. In the past two weeks, we’ve seen more Lib Dems leading debates, and we had our first opposition day. In this first Parliamentary briefing […]

There was an interesting article on BBC NEWS recently by Brian Wheeler, “Why are we building homes when so many are standing empty?” https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g518le0r5o the author makes the point far better than I could as to why this may not be as easy as it looks. One thing is for sure, getting the right sort of homes […]

The Conservatives have picked their final two leadership contenders: two failed former ministers who will take the Conservatives even further to the right. On one side, Kemi Badenoch, who thinks maternity pay is excessive and that some civil servants should be thrown in prison. On the other, Robert Jenrick, who said he would vote for […]

Water companies continue to get away with dumping filthy sewage into our rivers, lakes and seas. Shockingly, our Freedom of Information request reveals Ofwat, the regulator, hasn’t fined any of them since 2021 – and their investigation team is just over 8 full-time staff! After years of Conservative inaction, we need urgent steps to fix this. Since 2021, […]

The Local Government Association (LGA) has raised concerns that mandatory housebuilding targets for councils centralise policy and weaken local decision making. In its response to the Government’s consultation on the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), the LGA also warned that the new method of calculating targets could lead to speculative unplanned development without the sufficient […]

It comes as the average household energy bill is set to rise by £149 from October 1 after industry watchdog Ofgem increased its price cap Households across Britain are facing increasing energy costs this winter By Lawrence Matheson The chief of Ovo Energy has urged for a major overhaul to the UK’s energy bills system, suggesting they […]

Taken from an article by James Harrison 2 October 2024 at 1:55 pm While Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives might have been consigned to their worst election defeat in parliamentary history – sinking to just 121 seats – four in 10 Britons feel the party still has too much influence. According to pollsters YouGov, 69% of the […]