The price of Lambeth Liberal Democrat “scorched earth”policy

Lambeth Liberal Democrats left council finance in dire striates

Liberal Democrat Councillors have left Lambeth Council in Financial dire straits as a result of their “scorched earth” approach to the council’s budget over the past year. Council officers have revealed the full extent of the crisis the Lib Dems left the council in to new Finance boss, Labour’s Jim Dickson. Cllr Dickson and the newly elected Labour team are now getting on with the job of sorting the council’s finances out.

Since the books were opened up to Councillor Dickson it has been revealed:

- The Lib Dems overspent on lasts year’s budget by £2.5 million
- The Council was left with almost no reserve funds to cover the overspends
- Lib Dem waste has left the council on the brink of bankruptcy

While the Council’s auditor says there should be £15 million in the bank to cope with unexpected spending, the Lib Dems have left the council effectively in deficit.

The Lib Dems wasted an incredible amount of money during their time in office, including: £26 million on an unnecessary new office block in Vauxhall, £27 million windfall squandered on pet projects rather than bolstering the finances, £12 million lost this financial year because of a failure to properly account for debt repayments and £3 million lost in a housing fraud.

In a desperate effort to save their political skins the Lib Dems went for 0% council tax increase in a cynical pre-election ploy. They planned massive hikes after the election, but Labour will now sort out the mess while keeping council tax rises down.

Councillor Jim Dickson, Cabinet Member for Finance, said:

“The council is now paying the price for Lib Dem waste, incompetence and pre-election stunts. They pursued a scorched earth financial policy which has left the council in crisis.”

“I am very confident that Labour will be able to sort this mess out, but this does show that Lib Dems can’t be trusted with public money.”

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