Leader's column

The leader's column is published every two weeks in Lambeth Life, our free newspaper for residents.

1 March 2009

Your council tax is being frozen with no increase for the second year running. That's great news for every taxpayer in Lambeth, especially as many household budgets are under pressure because of the recession.

Some people have asked me whether Lambeth's big council-tax freeze means services will suffer from underfunding as a result. The good news is - no, it doesn't. We haven't frozen council tax by cutting services. We’ve paid for it by making your council more efficient.

Over the last year we've been more efficient in the way we run your services we've been able to freeze council tax AND spend more on services at the same time!

For instance, just last week I joined parents and children at the opening of the Brixton Children's Centre. This fantastic service - one of 30 children's centres across Lambeth - offers day care and pre-school care for young children, helping get them off to the best start in life.

Just a few days before I joined Tessa Jowell MP, students and teachers in West Norwood for the official opening of the Elmgreen School in their brand new state-of-the-art building.

In Clapham work has begun to build a new swimming pool, leisure centre, health centre and library. In Brixton, just last week, London Mayor Boris Johnson joined me and crowds of local people to celebrate the official opening of Windrush Square in the heart of Brixton.

And with roads left pock-marked after the heavy snow and ice of the past few weeks, Lambeth's been quick off the mark with work underway to fix 450 potholes since the start of the year, many of them in the worst-hit residential streets of Streatham.

All these extra services are being paid for without the need to increase council tax. Lambeth is delivering better value for money and that's good news for every council tax payer in the borough.