Shadow secretary for local government James Cleverly (Alamy)

4 min read16 min

Leaders of Tory-run Wandsworth and members of Kemi Badenoch’s shadow front bench, including party chairman Kevin Hollinrake and shadow local government secretary James Cleverly, met on Wednesday to discuss how to escalate their response to the new local government funding settlement.

They agreed on what sources described as statutory action, in which Wandsworth Council will consult residents before submitting a formal appeal to ministers asking them to reconsider the funding reforms. If this appeal is rejected, then the Local Government Association could make its own appeal to ministers on behalf of the council. 

Wandsworth Conservatives told PoliticsHome: “The previous Labour administration in Wandsworth failed to stand up for local residents, choosing instead to roll over while the Labour government cut 40 per cent of Wandsworth’s funding. That decision has real consequences for our borough and unfairly punishes Wandsworth residents.

“Wandsworth Conservatives will always stand up for our residents. That is why we have officially launched a challenge to the decision taken by the Labour government.

“We will not sit back and accept a funding settlement that leaves Wandsworth residents worse off. We will continue to fight for a fair deal for our borough and the funding it deserves.”

PoliticsHome revealed last week that Wandsworth was preparing to introduce England’s biggest-ever council tax increase in April 2027.

The council, which has one of the lowest tax rates in the country, blamed Labour government cuts to its grant funding, which are projected to amount to a 40 per cent reduction.

The government has said its reforms to local government funding prioritise parts of the country with higher deprivation so that the system is “truly based on need”.

However, the changes will mean less funding for some local authorities in London, with MPs and councillors in the capital warning that the plans will exacerbate cost pressures.

London Councils, which represents local government in the capital, last week told PoliticsHome “it is now almost impossible” for councillors in London “to protect frontline services for their communities” because “funding from central government remains wholly insufficient to meet these growing demands”.

Wandsworth, which the Conservatives won from Labour in May, has already announced spending cuts in response to the new funding settlement, having previously warned that council tax would have to increase by up to 230 per cent without a spending decrease.

Leaders of other councils impacted by funding cuts were also present on Wednesday. Conservative-run Westminster and Kensington & Chelsea have been considering launching appeals to the government, as has Lib-Dem-controlled Richmond, PoliticsHome understands.

Westminster, which like Wandsworth was permitted by the government to raise council tax above five per cent without a referendum for the next two years to raise more revenue, recently warned it would have to raise council tax by up to 200 per cent to keep spending at current levels.

A Conservative Party spokesman told PoliticsHome: “We regularly meet with Conservative council leaders across the country to discuss the issues facing their communities.

“Labour have slashed funding for these councils only to hand the money to badly run Labour councils elsewhere.

“It is only right that, in the face of this Labour government’s determination to impose huge and vindictive council tax rises, we meet with them to discuss how we can work together to oppose Labour’s council tax raid.”

Since PoliticsHome revealed the expected council tax rise, the Labour group in Wandsworth has used the 160 per cent figure on its campaigning literature ahead of a by-election in the Trinity ward on Thursday. 

In response, Conservatives in the South London borough have accused the previous Labour administration of spending recklessly while it controlled the council.

Seventies band Boney M is understood to be in talks to appear at Reform UK conference in several weeks (Alamy)

2 min read12 min

The band, which rose to fame in the 1970s with songs like Rasputin and Daddy Cool, is being lined up to appear at the afterparty in Birmingham, set to be held on the Friday evening of the conference. 

A Reform spokesman told PoliticsHome: “Several exciting acts are under consideration for our conference after-party. This will be confirmed and announced in due course.”

Reform’s annual conference will take place in just under a fortnight from 3 September to 5 September.

Last year, Marlon and Jackie from The Jacksons made a surprise appearance at the Reform conference, performing songs including Blame it on the Boogie and Can You Feel it for around an hour. 

At the same event, Reform supporter Andrea Jenkyns, formerly a Conservative MP, performed self-written song Insomniac.

Attendees of this year’s Reform conference can purchase a ticket to the afterparty for £25. The party is marketed on the Reform UK website as an opportunity to “join Nigel Farage and special guests for an unforgettable evening”.

Boney M, formed in what was then West Germany, still performs today with changing lineups and is set to tour the country later this year, in cities including Liverpool and London. 

Original lead singer Liz Mitchell and dancer Maizie Williams have both taken part in recent performances. However, it is not clear what Boney M lineup is in talks to perform at Reform conference next month.

Reform figures will hope that the conference helps the party regain momentum after a tricky few months which have seen the polling of both the party and leader Farage dip. 

Last month, Farage comfortably won a by-election in his Clacton constituency, a contest he triggered after standing down as an MP amid growing pressure over a £5m donation he received from crypto-billionaire Christopher Harborne.

No other major party contested the by-election, arguing that it was a waste of time and resources.

 

Award-winning chef Tom Kerridge has called on the government to create a new ministry for hospitality (Alamy)

3 min read3 min

Speaking on the latest episode of PoliticsHome podcast The Rundown, the Michelin-starred restaurant owner said a “ministry of hospitality” would help recognise the industry’s importance to the wider economy at a time when it is under significant financial pressure.

”The biggest problem that we have is that a ministry of hospitality does not exist,” said Kerridge.

He argued that, as things stand, various parts of government “give an opinion on what should happen” to the industry but, as one of the country’s biggest employers, it needs a dedicated Whitehall department.

“There should be a civil service building somewhere around here where there are people who absolutely know what they’re talking about, that can sit there and represent the industry to government,” he added.

Kerridge said having a department responsible for hospitality could help ministers draft policy to prevent situations like the recent licensing row over so-called “vertical drinking” in the London borough of Westminster. The chef described the council’s contentious draft proposal to discourage people from drinking standing up as “nonsense”.

“It [the department] doesn’t need to be massive. It just needs to sit there within a building because it ties so many different things together, and governments would stop having ludicrous stories like that,” he added.

Kerridge is also campaigning for VAT to be reduced from 20 per cent to 10 per cent, and additional steps on business rates to reverse the trend of hospitality businesses closing.

Since entering No 10 a month ago, the Prime Minister has announced a 20 per cent cut to business rates from next April for pubs, social clubs and live music venues, while Housing Secretary Angela Rayner is changing planning policy to protect hospitality venues from being turned into offices or housing.

Kerridge said the steps were “positive” but “nowhere near close enough” to what the hospitality industry needs.

On VAT, he told the podcast: “Whether it’s 10 per cent straight away, whether it starts as 15 and then a year later it goes to 12.5 per cent, and then a year later it goes to 10 per cent, just something that shows we know, we care, we understand,” he said.

Kerridge added that the business rate system is “not fit for purpose” in its current form and something Chancellor John Healey should look to improve at the late-October Budget.

According to recent research by NIQ’s Hospitality Market Monitor, between 3 and 4 pubs and restaurants are closing every day in the UK due to rising costs.

The Rundown is presented by Alain Tolhurst, and is produced and edited by Ewan Cameron and Lulu Goad for Podot

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