Green Party Political View Column: Public services must be supported
The Peterborough Green Party would like to thank everyone who voted for us both in the local and general elections.
I was proud to represent the party as Parliamentary Candidate for Peterborough, and was delighted that we tripled our vote from the last election.
People voted for us to protect the NHS, defend public services, tackle climate change, clean up our rivers and seas and for principled international humanitarian policies.
The Green party now has four MPs and they have already got to work challenging the government to lift the two child benefit cap.
They have written to the Chancellor urging her to change the tax system so that revenue can be brought in to restore public services.
They have asked the government to support households with the transition to a green economy as well as asking them to properly fund the NHS, schools and local authorities.
During the election campaign the Labour party suggested they would not substantially increase public spending. However there are several measures they could take to increase tax revenues:
* Aligning rates of capital gains tax with income tax would help to end the current unjust situation where income from work is taxed more than income from wealth and assets.
* Removing the upper earnings limit on National Insurance. This would only affect those earning more than 50,000 per year, bringing their National Insurance rate into line with the rate paid by people on lower incomes.
* Introducing an annual wealth tax of 1% on assets over 10 million pounds and 2% over one billion pounds. This would affect less than 1% of households, and would help to redress the growth in extreme wealth seen since the pandemic.
The Greens call on the government to take the bold decisions necessary to support our public services while ensuring those on low incomes are not asked to pay more. We also ask for some honesty about how government finances really work.
The false narrative of 'there's no money' leads us back to austerity and cannot lead to the changes the new government has promised.
The financial position of our city council is getting more difficult.
A report from the independent panel who are helping us through these difficult times suggests: 'The early forecasting trends for 2024/25 are not promising; the internal revenue forecast for the end of May shows a forecast overspend of £8.6million with continuing spend pressures in children’s and adults services and temporary accommodation.’
If the current level of forecast overspend materialises reserves would be at a level that in the panel’s view would be unacceptable.
The Olympic Games are now on, and it's clear that local services such as Swimming Pools and Athletics tracks are vital in producing the Olympians of the future.
Peterborough has produced plenty of successful Olympians.
Swimming medallist Brian Brinkley put back into the sport he loved when coaching at Peterborough Swimming Club for many years.
The pool where he worked is about to be demolished with no concrete plans for a replacement.
Uncertainty continues to surround the future of our athletic track.
A track where Olympic 4 x 400m relay medal prospect and 2023 World Athletics Championship silver medallist Lewis Davey spent so many hours training and competing during his teenage years.
We urge Peterborough City Council to do everything in their power to ensure our city affords potential Olympians every opportunity to realise their dreams.