Lib Dems derided as a joke over wasteful spending

But failure to get to grips with huge bills for consultants and bonuses are no laughing matter

In the last two weeks Southwark’s Lib Dem/Tory coalition has been embarrassed by a number of newspaper articles about the council’s appalling wasteful spending.

At the end of January, the South London Press revealed that spending on consultants had gone up by 20% this year, despite a Lib Dem pledge to cut council spending on consultants.

And this week, the Lib Dems’ intention to spend up to £200,000 on bonuses for 40 council staff was lampooned by Private Eye, who pointed to the fact that the council has just been rated the worst in inner London by the Audit Commission.

So you might think that the Lib Dems would make cutting such spending a priority in their annual budget, which they will agree this evening. But spending on consultants and spending on bonuses isn’t even mentioned.

Neither is a strategy for improving the council’s poor tax collection service, which currently costs Southwark tax payers about £7 million a year. Nor cutting the cost of million-pound debt write-offs, nor the £165 million new offices on Tooley Street.

We believe that money would be better spent on improving services for Southwark residents and keeping their council tax down. That’s why Labour’s alternative budget, which we will launch later in the moneth, will focus on cracking down on the Lib Dems wasteful spending.