Census day!

You can complete your questionnaire as soon as you receive it, but if you haven't already nows the the time to get started - your answers should be about everyone living or staying in your household (including any overnight visitors) on census day, Sunday 27 March.

If you need help, or have questions, just call the free Census hotline on 03000 2011 01 or contact them via their website. In addition, you can fill in your forms, and get assistance, in all Hackney libraries.

The more people in Hackney that fill in the census the more money will be spent in the borough on schools, hospitals, roads and other local services - so please fill yours in today.

March for the Alternative

Government spending cuts will damage public services and put more than a million out of work. They will hit the vulnerable, damage communities and undermine much of what holds us together as a society.

The March for the Alternative is taking place in central London on Saturday 26 March. It is expected to be the largest demonstration in the capital for many years and the first national mobilisation against the spending cuts which are viewed as unfair, too fast, and too deep by the majority of voters.

The march will form up from 11am on the Victoria Embankment between Waterloo and Blackfriars bridges and proceed through central London until reaching Hyde Park, where the rally will start from around half past one.

There will be a significant contingent from Hackney travelling to the march together on Saturday morning, setting off from Dalston Junction - if you want to join us, please get in contact.

You can find more details on the march here:

http://marchforthealternative.org.uk/

And more on the cuts here:

http://falseeconomy.org.uk/

2011 Census

Forms have begun to land on people's doorsteps for the 2011 Census.

The census is Britain's survey of our population which takes place every decade, and is a critical tool used by government to decide how money is divided up between different areas and therefore how much is spent on our local schools, hospitals and transport.

At the last Census, Hackney Council estimates that around 13,500 forms in Hackney were not returned meaning that we lost out on valuable funding which is crucial to fund our local services. This lost funding is even more important now in light of the current cuts being imposed on us from Whitehall.

Some people may find the forms confusing, or want some questions answered and there are a number of different ways to get those answers: you can call the Census hotline on 03000 2011 01 or contact them via their website. In addition, from this week the Council will also be providing help via local libraries.

We know that there have been some concerns that personal information is being asked for, but it is SO important that you complete your form and return it. All information is completely confidential and is not released for a century.

Last time, Hackney had the second lowest response rate in the country at only 73% - this undercounting meant that we lost out on valuable resources equivalent to the local NHS services receiving £40 million less than they should have over the period and the council missing out on £17 million. This is a serious amount of money - ensuring we receive it this time depends on all of us completing and returning our forms either on paper or online.

Hackney Council - the Government's cuts and our budget

On Wednesday evening, Hackney Council set its budget for 2011 / 2012.

The full budget papers are available online on the Council’s website, and can be downloadedhere.

It is not possible for Hackney to escape the impact of the Government’s spending review. This budget, however, is the financial expression of this Council’s Labour Mayor, Cabinet and Councillors determination and commitment to shielding residents from the Tory government’s attack on the nation’s public services.

The cuts to local government are some of the deepest allocated to any part of the public sector, and the cuts to Hackney are among the deepest anywhere in local government. Once one off monies and some NHS money ‘given’ to councils is removed, the cut in Hackney’s grant for 2011/12 is 14.9% - 44 million pounds. This is one of the most severe cuts in Central Government support to Local Government since the Second World War.

Over the past months councillors and officers have been grappling with how this reduction in spending can be achieved with the minimum of harm to the people of Hackney. The front loading of cuts into year one and the delay in the publication of the provisional settlement until mid-December has made this task more difficult still.

Despite this, in this budget the Council will not be making cuts to the front-line services it provides to residents. There will be no raising of eligibility criteria for homecare for the elderly, there’ll be no library closures, no closure of children’s centres, no reduction in the cleanliness of our streets or any similar ending or reduction of services.

Instead, the Council has delivered the required savings through a range of changes, including continuing the efficiency savings that it has made every year for the past five years - these savings include stripping out layers of management, transforming the way we work, and gaining additional efficiencies from the contracts we have for things like ICT. In addition, a significant part of the cuts this year have been to funding for the wider borough that was passed through the council to Team Hackney – the local partnership that funded many projects that were run alongside the Council’s services. The Council has attempted to step in and fund Team Hackney activities where we can, but obviously our resources are limited.

Some people have suggested that the Council should either set an illegal budget or no budget at all and to do otherwise would be implementing ‘Tory cuts’. Neither of these are legally possible and, frankly, these accusations do no more that help the Government localise the blame for cuts on councils.

If either an illegal budget or no budget were set, then – very simply – the council’s officers would continue to follow the current budget. In this scenario, when contracts ran out services – from the council’s website, to sure start centres and nurseries - would be shut down. Eventually, a team from central government would be appointed to direct officers. In summary, the action would have no effect whatsoever.

The spending reductions imposed on local government and Hackney in particular have been made under the guise of ‘deficit reduction’ but ultimately at their core lies an ideology that seeks to change, and attempt to dismantle, public sector provision in our country. Whilst in this budget we have made the best attempt we can to protect you, your neighbours and all the people of Hackney, in future years this will become more and more difficult.