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Since 2010, Islington Council has faced its biggest Government cuts in peacetime history. The council’s budget has been cut by £112m since 2010 – a cut of almost a third. 

The Tory-led Government plans to cut the council’s budget by another £95m over the next four years – cutting it by a third again. 

This means Islington Council’s budget in 2018 will be one third the size it was in 2010, despite increasing demand for many of the services it provides. 

Every household in Islington will be over £2,000 worse off under the Tories’ proposed cuts to local government. 

Council Leader Richard Watts said: “We are on the side of ordinary working people who will be hit hardest by the Tories’ unfair cuts and we will be leading the fight against them. 

“Elected representatives are the people who make the decisions in Islington and every decision we make will be guided by our strong mandate from local people to make jobs, housing and help with the cost of living the priorities in tough times.

“The leaked council managers’ draft proposals are not the decisions of the elected representatives, but do indicate the potential horrific consequences of us not standing together now against the Tory-led Government’s cuts that hit Islington far harder than the wealthy Tory-controlled shires. 

“Islington Labour is really proud of how we have made a difference with a third less government funding – by cutting the Chief Executive’s salary by £50,000, getting rid of top heavy management and achieving efficiencies in order to avoid having to make cuts to the frontline services on which our residents depend. We have also reduced wasteful spending by the former Liberal Democrat administration on things such as communications staff.  

“As we have done in each of the last 4 years’ budgets, we will prioritise protecting frontline services and our most vulnerable residents. By doing things differently and leaving no stone unturned, we will continue to do all we can to protect services such as libraries, leisure facilities and the ecology centre. 

“The elected councillors have not yet decided how to make the savings being forced upon us because it is our intention to fight them first.  In the future any actual proposals will be announced in advance of agreeing the Budget and the community will have a chance to have a say on them.” 

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