We need to know the truth about Solihull Council's finances.

The Conservatives needed a £48 million lifeline to keep the council afloat. Now, they are having to pay back nearly £4 million a year of your money, while council tax goes up by 5% and your services are not improving.

The Conservatives say they aren't cutting services, but we've already seen charges for green waste collections, dimming of street lights, selling off public land and paying some council staff to quit early.

The Conservatives are trying to keep the scale of the financial challenges facing the council and what it means for you under wraps. There needs to be transparency about the seriousness of the situation.

We need to know how they plan to turn this ship around.

This financial crisis didn't happen overnight. 14 years of Tory leadership led us to this mess. Do you trust them to get us out of it?

#solihull #solihullcouncil #counciltax #efs #libdems #demandbetter

When are service reductions not 'cuts' and when is a government bail out 'not a loan'?

Councillor Ade Adeyemo challenges the Conservatives on likely cuts to council services and the £48.273M government EFS bail out, without which #SolihullCouncil could not balance its books.

Solihull was one of 18 councils who applied for emergency government bailout agreements and were given Exceptional Financial Support (EFS) in February to stave off bankruptcy and help meet their legal duty to balance their books in the next two financial years (2025/26 and 2026/27).

Exceptional Financial Support (EFS) enables councils to take out loans to pay for day-to-day services. The government has said councils will not be able to dispose of community and heritage assets to repay the loans.

Liberal Democrats are concerned that EFS could load the struggling council with further debt and costs in the future and undermine future capital programmes.

https://youtu.be/RoC-r-fA5oE

#Solihull #LibDems #EFS #Cuts