Leader’s
Notes
‘A budget gap of nearly
£37.6million to bridge by
the end of 2023’
Councillor Julian Bell
Leader of the council
We have a simple message
for the 55,000 citizens of
other EU countries living in Ealing:
We want you to stay.
The council has been flying the
European flag at Ealing Town
Hall in solidarity with you all
for some time now. You make
fantastic contributions to life in our
borough, to our local economy
and to our communities here. We
do not want Brexit to cause you
to leave.
This year, for 2020/21, the council reluctantly intends to take a 1.99% increase
in core council tax, as well as the government’s 2% social care precept. It will
mean a weekly increase of around 90p on the council tax bill for the average band
D property.
It will bring in an extra £5.6million. This is necessary, as many people will
understand, because of the scale of the financial pressures we face, with a budget
gap of nearly £37.6million to bridge by the end of 2023.
Despite these pressures, residents rightly want to see good public services and for
Ealing to be a great place to live. That is why we have worked hard to ensure we
can invest significantly over the coming year in recycling, highways, in providing
genuinely affordable homes and supporting our most vulnerable residents,
including young people with special educational needs.
Decisions taken in previous years are also having an effect. As Around Ealing
reported in its winter edition, the council is nearly half-way to meeting its 2,500
genuinely affordable new homes target and now has the biggest council house
building programme in London. The council’s Better Lives programme has
been reducing pressures on adult social care by focusing on supporting older
residents to stay in their own homes for longer. And it now ranks first in London for
preventing homelessness (see page 26).
Meanwhile, the council has set itself one of the most
ambitious targets in the UK to respond to the climate
emergency and intends to be carbon neutral by 2030
(see page 13).
We want to support you in any way
we can through the next year as we
go through the transition process.
If you have any problems applying
for settled status, please contact
the registrars office at the council.
For more information, visit my blog
page at ealingnewsextra.co.uk/
blog/leaders-notes where there is
a video and an article with links to
more details. Or, for help from the
registrars office, call 020 8825 7809
to book an appointment.
A huge ‘thank you’ to those
community groups and
residents who are stepping
forward in the spring to help run
our newly-formed community
managed libraries and, by doing
so, keeping these valuable local
resources open to the public.
Read more on pages 18-19.
around ealing February/March 2020
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