Adam Harmsworth, Coventry Socialist Party and TUSC candidate for Lower Stoke, Coventry City Council
Years of austerity and inflation have pushed millions of us into poverty and debt. Councils have the resources and powers to provide support for those who need it now, and will in the future as inflation bites. That includes existing schemes like Council Tax Support (CTS), but could also include grants and support for those struggling with heating bills, or providing free school meals all year round.
Over the last 15 years, council funding has been slashed over and over again with repeated austerity cuts from central government. Across the country, services and provisions that provided a lifeline to millions have been cut. Many have cut the level of council tax reduction available under CTS.
Labour and Tory councils, and those led by Greens and Reform, have all refused to stand up to austerity, but instead cut CTS and other support. They have done this while raising council tax year after year.
This year, the average council tax bill is going up 4.9% – an extra £111 burden on families in Band D homes. How many of us have £111 to spare?
None of the main parties are willing to fight to provide the support that families need – increasing support for CTS, providing free school meals all year, support for energy bills. Nor will they fight for the longer-term changes needed to get millions out of poverty, like affordable housing for all, free publicly owned transport, and restoring council services and jobs.
Instead of increasing taxes on the working class, councils should demand the funding needed from central government, the resources we need are there, but hoarded by the super-rich. That is what socialist candidates are fighting for this election. Socialist Party candidates are standing under the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) umbrella. They would, if elected, be the socialist opposition to the other parties, standing up against poverty and decline, to support working-class families rather than strangle their income further.
