Greens urge Labour MPs to speak up for Glasgow ahead of IJB budget meeting
Ahead of a key council meeting Glasgow’s Green councillor group have written to Labour MPs, calling for them to stand up for essential health, care and homelessness services and key workers across the city as 140 jobs are under threat in the next year alone.
Green councilors in Glasgow have told the city’s Labour MPs they must stand up for essential health, care and homelessness services and key workers across the city.
Ahead of the Integration Joint Board (IJB) budget meeting this week, the city’s Green group have written to Labour MPs, calling for them to rethink their support for welfare cuts.
The IJB faces a budget gap of £42m this year - and potentially as much as £250m over the next three years - meaning cuts are being proposed to vital support services, and around 140FTE job losses are threatened next year alone.
While the IJB struggles with soaring demand for services caused by years of austerity, its biggest current funding pressures are from the UK Government’s changes to national insurance contributions, which has not been adequately compensated for, and from the consequences of Home Office changes on asylum, which is putting unprecedented pressure on the city’s homelessness services.
Now, the Labour Government’s threat of draconian cuts to disability benefits and other social security risks piling even more strain on vital health and care services, and misery for those who depend on them.
The letter, from Green councillors Lana Reid-McConnell and Jon Molyneux, calls on Labour MPs to demand changes in the Chancellor’s upcoming Spring Statement.
It states:
“It is clear … that the biggest immediate threats to the financial sustainability of health and social care services in Glasgow are posed by decisions of the UK Labour Government.’
“On top of all this, the UK Government is now trailing some £6bn cuts to social security. If enacted these will surely create additional harm for disabled people and the most vulnerable and end up heaping even more demand on already-stretched care and support services.
“With the Chancellor’s spring statement due on 26th March, we urge you to make representations for additional funding and for urgent actions to mitigate the pressures caused by UK Government decisions.”
Cllr Jon Molyneux social care spokesperson and green group leader said:
“Greens were able to secure an extra £4m for the IJB in the council budget this year, but health and care services continue to operate under enormous, frankly unbearable pressure, following more than a decade of austerity.
“We need a rethink of how these services are funded and properly valued. Since the creation of IJBs, there’s a sense that out of sight means out of mind and politicians are less accountable for these decisions. Certainly, as an IJB member, the only choices on the table are to set a cuts budget, which no one wants to do, or fail to set a legal budget, plunging the whole system into chaos, and meaning no new spending could be approved whatsoever.
“The IJB’s biggest immediate budget pressures all stem from decisions of the UK Government in Westminster. We need Glasgow’s Labour MPs to stand up for the city’s most vulnerable and persuade the Chancellor to change course before it’s too late.”
Cllr Lana Reid-McConnell health spokesperson said:
"When it comes to the huge funding gap facing the IJB for health and social care services in our city, the UK and Scottish Government seem happy to look the other way, forcing officers to propose savings to essential services to achieve a balanced budget.
“These savings include a range of mental health services including support at the Sandyford health service, lifelink counselling, psychotherapy, trauma, alcohol and drug recovery services amongst various other savings across mental health, health improvement and community health services.
“We seem to be normalising making cuts to already extremely under-resourced services. In recent years, millions of pounds of savings have had to be found and there’s been no sincerity from ministers to deal with this chronic, systemic underfunding.”