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Free school meals would ease weekly bills trauma
• ALTHOUGH I welcome the introduction of a Conservative policy of a freeze in council tax in Islington, I am disappointed that our other proposals were not adopted at the council executive meeting. They directly respond to the borough-wide budget consultation, which revealed that 50 per cent of residents wanted a below-inflation tax level, with 25 per cent wanting a cut in council tax.
We need to target tax reductions to benefit all sections of our community. The council needs to discount the tax for pensioners, who are suffering with near zero per cent interest rates – affecting their monthly income – coupled with high fuel bills and the real risk of inflation in the medium term.
My family, like many in Islington, knows the cost of food and child care. Everyday household bills have hugely increased over the past 12 months. The free school meals policy is a good start, putting money into families’ pockets, as well as improving nutritional and educational outcomes of our children.
Some say proposals such as this benefit the rich more than the poor. I disagree. Universal benefits sometimes are the most efficient use of taxpayers’ money. They benefit all, and stop “benefit traps” developing in our welfare system.
We need a budget that helps all sections of our community, benefiting those most needy, while ensuring our council is run as efficiently as possible. I believe the current budget does neither and is a missed opportunity. The Lib Dem council leadership is turning its backs on residents.
RICHARD BUNTING
Deputy chairman, Islington Conservatives
• ISLINGTON Labour keeps saying it wants taxpayers to fund free school meals for every child. But in next-door Haringey, the Labour council is refusing to fund free school meals.
In opposition Labour seems prepared to promise the earth with Islington taxpayers’ money, but you can see from the failure to act in Haringey that Labour cannot be trusted to keep its promises.
Labour seems to think you can make statements about funding expensive new commitments without sitting down and thinking how much this is going to end up costing the taxpayer and which other services will end up suffering as a result.
We’ve seen before how Labour would run Islington. Before 2000, we had year after year of neglect, cuts and waste. Its costly and ill-thought-out plans for free school meals just show how little it has changed in the last nine years.
CLLR PAULA BELFORD
Lib Dem executive member for children and young people
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