Labour's budget for children

Lambeth Labour Group unveiled a “budget for children”

Lambeth Labour Group unveiled a “budget for children”, ahead of the Council’s budget setting meeting. Proposals include providing free fruit to every primary school child in the borough, investment in children’s outdoor play facilities and reversing nursery privatisation. Labour’s investment in children would be paid for by avoiding wasteful spending being put forward by the ruling Liberal Democrat / Tory coalition.

Labour Councillors view children’s development as a top priority and want to force the current administration to take their needs more seriously. Serving healthy food at school is shown to improve concentration and encourage good eating habits in later life.

As well as proposing free fruit for primary schools kids, Labour will also put forward plans to boost the nutritional content of meals by serving organic food in primary schools. Click here for a full list of Labour’s proposals.

Labour also wants kids to get a good service from their council from day one. The opposition is proposing extra funds to cut the waiting list for registering births so that the council can meet the statutory target time. Under the Lib Dems and Tories the council has consistently failed to meet this target.

Councillor Dan Sabbagh, Labour Finance spokesperson, said:

“Labour sees the well-being of Lambeth’s kids as our top priority. The Liberals are wasting literally millions of pounds on Town Hall bureaucracy which produce little or no reward for residents of the borough.”

“We would invest in front line services, particularly those that benefit young people. Our proposals include free fruit for primary school kids, youth club renovations and halting the privatisation of day nurseries.”

Labour also knows how important it is to keep council tax levels down. That is why we have proposed a lower increase that the Liberals.”

Labour is proposing a net saving of nearly £2.2 million representing a reduction of £22.43 on the proposed increase in the Liberal-Tory Council Tax increase. If Labour was in power, Council Tax in Lambeth would go up by 2.24%, in line with inflation - as opposed to the 4.3% proposed by the Liberals and Tories.

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