URGENT – COUNCIL MEETING TODAY 

WEST DUNBARTONSHIRE COUNCIL 

STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL & PRIVATE :  DO NOT DISCLOSE SOURCES  

HUGE RENT INCREASES YET UNDERSPENDS ON LAST YEAR BUDGET LINES – ROBBING THE POOREST! 

As we get closer to the big council meeting this afternoon, the weight of what we’ve got to do for West Dunbartonshire’s future is really hitting home. The agenda’s packed with big decisions, especially for folks in council housing and the gypsy traveller community, and it’s up to us to step up and make the right calls. 

Get looking on the council site at the papers for todays crucial meeting and the amended papers to get this rent hike through.

**Last-Minute Reports and Councillors in a Tight Spot**  

And now, just before the meeting, we’ve been handed a last-minute report on the Housing Budget. It makes you wonder why, doesn’t it? 

We’re all busy, and most of us are doing this part-time, but it feels like we’re being played by the folks running the show in Housing Services and a Chief Executive who’s leading a council that’s not doing great.

 We’re close to going broke, laying off loads of local people, yet still paying big money for jobs that don’t seem to help much. We’re supposed to be in charge, but it’s like we’re being kept in the dark and just expected to agree to everything without a proper look.  

**Big Rent Hikes and Why We Need to Talk More**  

The council’s thinking about bumping up rents for council housing tenants by either 6.7%. These are huge increases, way above what most people’s wages are going up by, and it’s going to hit our most vulnerable residents hard. Only one in five tenants had their say in the consultation, which shows we need to get better at chatting with everyone about these changes. 

And all this from a Housing Director who is publicly admitting to a Housing Crisis, homelessness crisis.  A Captain ready to go down with his ship? I think not! 

**Where’s the Rent Money Going?**  

It’s come out that £250,000 meant for CCTV and £116,000 for a new Housing Management system hasn’t been spent.  But what’s really got people talking is that money that should be making council houses better is being spent on other stuff across the council . Buying in services from other parts of council by funding services that should be paid for by Council Tax. This isn’t just a bit dodgy; it’s like a hidden tax on the poorest, making them pay more while the richer folks get off lighter on their council tax.  

**Time for a Change**  

With all this going on, it’s clear we need to take a good hard look at how things are being done. We can’t keep going like this, making decisions without all the info or just because it’s been left to the last minute. We’ve got to get back to looking after our community, especially those who need it most.  

This meeting today is more than just ticking boxes; it’s about deciding what kind of council we want to be. Do we stick to the old ways, or do we start making fairer choices that really look after everyone in West Dunbartonshire? It’s time to get our act together and make sure we’re doing right by the people who put us here.  

 LONGER PIECE FOLLOWS

Kelvinside not Clydeside – Labour’s only Council  

• AMMENDED HOUSING PAPERS AT LAST MINUTE To NOD THROUGH HUGE RENT INCREASES 
• COUNCILLORS TO VOTE ON ALTERED PAPERS 
• LARGE RENT INCREASES AND HITTING MOST VULNERABLE
  UNDERSPENDS ON LAST YEAR BUT WANTING STILL MORE MONEY 
• COUNCIL SAY NO EQUALITIES IMPLICATION BUT CLEARLY HITS POOREST AND TRAVELLERS MORE 
• RENT MONEY USED FOR OTHER SERVICES-ROB THE POOREST 
• UNION DEMO 
• COUNCILLORS ASKED TO SIGN _OFF ON LATE BUDGET PAPERS

Summary 

Councillors being manipulated is grossly unfair 

The Council, its Housing Service and others  is in chaos, a service offering slum landlord housing yet putting above inflation rents up to fund total mismanagement and nepotism while constantly successfully putting its hand out asking for, and getting more scarce money. Money that could be used to help have better house, to educate our children, allow jobs to be kept in frontline services such as Teaching Assistants, to keep the Libraries that offer our young people a chance.

We personally carry the can, are legally accountable to balance budgets yet are given scant and late information and are asked to sign off on.

This is with a Chief Executive on a plus £160,000 salary who in our opinion allows and endorses such practices.

Today the Housing Budget is a great example of this manipulation hoping to get it through ‘on the nod’ due to late changes to papers and busy councillors focussing on bigger cuts!

Enough is enough

Staff cannot speak out as there is a historic legacy of bullying and fear – just as the Unions who are under siege with late papers, no promised decisions made, information not consultation and having to deal with hundreds of job losses.  

They are small in number (Union officials) but at least they do their best for frontline workers. They also help our communities in running workshops on the crisis in our communities today – Keir Hardie would be proud!

Today we have our Labour Council acting to the right of Keir Starmer rather than defending the traditions of Keir Hardie and red Clydeside that people thought they voted for.

Kelvinside not Clydeside – Labour 

Today we have the Council meeting, a meeting that promises to shape our community’s destiny.

At Unions, we see work endlessly to protect local council jobs and support the wider local community through public meetings about cuts to services and how to cope with the Cost of Living crisis. Trade Unionist will gather today at the Church St offices at 3pm before the crucial Council meeting.

It is not these hard work TU officials and Members There is a Trojan Horse. Hidden in the general malaise of the overall Council Budget setting we see a Russian Doll approach of slipping in Housing Budget requests that are disgraceful and possibly illegal.

The Housing Budget papers, documents of critical importance and massive sums of public money, were amended at the eleventh hour. This manoeuvre reeks of a deliberate attempt to keep us in the dark and reducing us as elected representatives to mere pawns in a game we’re only just realizing we’re playing.

So will sneaking through last minute amended papers on Housing Budgets which see budget lines go unscrutinised, allow Housing Rent money to fund services in other Departments and cruxify the weakest in society with massive, above inflation rent increases work? -probably but it stinks.

In Housing, the pattern of mismanagement extends beyond budget allocations. 

Those in frontline positions are stretched, made to use makeshift IT yet raise ethical concerns, notably through ‘jobs for the boys’  .

The Environmental Services Department’s failure to utilize any of a  £2 million allocation for service improvements has led to a noticeable decline in essential services, such as uncut grass, overgrown cemeteries and increasing bin charges. This underperformance signals broader issues of mismanagement and inefficiency within the council’s operations

This proposal  to increase rents, comes at a time when the department has demonstrated a perplexing inability to utilize already allocated funds effectively. For instance, despite being awarded £250,000 for the implementation of Big Brother-style CCTV in council estates to enhance security and safety, the department failed to spend any portion of these funds. This glaring underutilization of resources, juxtaposed with the department’s plea for additional funding, mirrors the classic plea of Oliver Twist: “Can we have some more?” 

The  absolute minimal use of a £116,000 allocation for a new Housing Management system raise serious questions about fiscal responsibility and the prioritization of funds. Why ask for more when you cannot use what you asked for before?

What’s more this Housing money is used to pay for other Council services and posts – revealing a strategy that effectively shifts the financial burden onto the community’s most vulnerable. This approach, using Housing Rent Increases and substantial hikes in charges for the Gypsy Traveller site to subsidize unrelated council services, acts as a stealth tax but only on the poorest in West Dunbartonshire. 

The poorest hit by above inflation rent increases will pay for services that should properly be funded by Council stay. It is a tax on the poor, a stealth tax that stops further Council Tax increases on the richer members of society. It is highly dubious to use funds from our rents to do this. 

Council say they have conducted a disability Assessment on this rent increase and nothing is listed. What? 

Rent increases and traveller site fees of this amount in excess of inflation, wage increases and hitting the poorest and disadvantaged should absolutely be identified as inequality on the assessment but does not! 

This is not a bottomless money pit, sure overspends due to mismanagement in other areas such as getting council houses ready for new tenants are colossal  with over 100% yes 100% overspend of over £3 million in this area.

We need to do something even if to delay Council decision making as we cannot have councillors putting their personal lives and the welfare of local people at risk by not scrutinising these budget lines.

Management are obviously not wishing to be transparent and sliding through last minute papers is apparently little consequence to them alongside massive budget cut papers and decisions.

It is our job to represent the weakest in society. We are here to represent all!