Canal27ways

Category: Blog

  • Setting Trafford’s Budget Pt 2

    Setting Trafford’s Budget Pt 2

    We’re waiting for the draft budget to be published which is scheduled as it stands for the 6th January 2026 as part of the reports for the Executive on 14th January 2026.

    I’d be surprised if the Government issued anything further in the meantime. Although, you’d anticipate a lot of one to one communication with Councils negatively affected by the settlement proposals. Trafford is certainly looking to discuss.

    Changes to funding formulas can throw up huge anomalies. The Minister is well aware that Trafford council, which covers part of my constituency, is one of those anomalies. Will she commit to work with my Trafford parliamentary colleagues, Trafford council and me to see if we can iron out some of those issues?

    Despite there being little to report, I do think the data published by the Government each year on council tax changes is worth a glance, particularly as Alison McGovern seemed to put some stall on average council tax.

    Live Tables on Council Tax

    The table below compares the rates paid in Trafford to the average in England* and to Stockport. The year 25/26 is the first time that Trafford has closed the gap by even the most marginal amount.

    *not totally sure I’m comparing like for like on the average table as both county councils and mayors are not universal. As Stockport is a GM council, there’s much more assurance in the comparison.

    Graph showing increase in Band D council tax from 1993 to 2026

    Trafford still has a low council tax regime. Over the decades this meant Trafford denying itself millions year on year. Some might argue that this is due to Trafford having a tight political competition for control, but if anything, the competition in Stockport has been even more fierce. So, it is what it is, but isn’t allowing sudden changes in income to be cushioned against.

    First Post on the Budget

  • Setting Trafford’s Budget Pt 1

    Setting Trafford’s Budget Pt 1

    It’s my intention that this post is the first in a series of pieces on setting Trafford’s 26/27 budget. One of the main motives for writing it is to get my own understanding of it up to speed. They say that the best form of learning is getting to a position where I can explain it. You’ll have gathered that I am not yet at that point.

    So, a starting gun was fired on Wednesday 17th December 2025 with the Government’s publication of a library of documents and a statement to the House of Commons from Alison McGovern, Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government).

    Link to Parliament TV

    It takes just 90 seconds for the Minister to get to a key theme of this Labour Government’s approach to financing local government.

    By breaking the link between funding and deprivation, the Tories punished poorer councils. Year after year, they exacerbated inequality. As a result, too many places in this country feel forgotten and left to fend for themselves…

    …It is why, according to our analysis, whereas under the old system deprivation scores could account for only 25% of variation in per capita funding applications, under this settlement it is up to 75%, with other important factors such as coastline, miles of road or visitor numbers making up the rest.

    So, we know that poorer councils will do better from this settlement than others and Trafford is not one of the poorest. As a Labour man, I totally support the intent. We will need to see whether Trafford is getting sufficient funding. That’s a process that will take us right through to setting the budget in March.

    Resources

    I’ll add to these as we proceed with budget setting but there’s already vital material online.

    Government Publications (Ministry of Housing, Community and Local Government – MHCLG)

    Local Government Association Material

    • LGA briefing A good summary and they’ll add more as we progress.

    Institute for Financial Studies they’re putting some good analysis and comment out there throughout this process.

    Featured Photo by RDNE Stock project: https://www.pexels.com/photo/marketing-exit-desk-notebook-7414218/

  • Fearing the worst, hoping for the best.

    Fearing the worst, hoping for the best.

    Trafford awaits its provisional financial settlement

    Might even be today, but more likely tomorrow or Thursday.

    This is the week where councils learn the amount that central government is going to top up their funding.

    We know the general rules that are going to apply. We know that the Government wants to support councils with high levels of deprivation.

    Last year Trafford had to apply for exceptional financial support which allowed the council to increase council tax beyond the normal capping of 4.99% and it provided the ability to borrow up to £9.6m to support the council’s in year budget.

    The council are currently anticipating a modest underspend of about £0.5m on this year’s budget. That would allow either reducing that £9.6m capitalisation for the year; or a small boost to the reserves.

    If it’s feasible, I’d prefer supplementing the reserves. In my view, they’re far too low.

    A favourable settlement from government will help narrow the funding gap. If it’s unfavourable, it presents some difficult choices.

    The Institute for Financial Studies (IFS) put out some analysis of the government’s budget approach for local government last month and it’s hard to see Trafford being one of the winners. Most of the policy shifts seem to work against Trafford, so it’s definitely a worrying wait but we’ll see.

    Image used under creative commons

    NEXT Conference from Berlin, Deutschland, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

  • August update

    August update

    Most council committees avoid August dates for obvious reasons. However, casework never rests. And it’s an opportunity to trigger some of our own.

    Circle Court

    Circle Court Lostock, Stretford

    L&Q disposed of the empty block in Spring, once they’d rehoused the last residents.

    Residents are understandably contacting us to find out what’s happening to the block. I am trying to engage with the new owners and will update here.

    Lack of upkeep on our streets

    Our streets are in an appalling condition. Lostock and Barton was officially recorded as having its weed-spraying complete in May.

    Derbyshire Lane West

    I have not seen evidence of ANY weed-spraying in the ward, although I’m told by residents there was some.

    It seems to apply from Flixton to Old Trafford. It is deplorable. The fact that I’ve been raising it with those responsible since May doesn’t vindicate me.

    We’ve still got a minimum of just under five years on the Amey contract. There’s clearly a need for changes in political oversight.

    As ward councillor, I can only apologise.

    The intention now is to do a deep clean of the area. You may (I hope) receive letters asking you to keep the street as clear of vehicles as possible ahead of this happening.

    Development Sites

    Apart from Circle Court, we’ve got a number of additional sites in the area that are fenced off either for, or in anticipation of, active development/renovation.

    • Former Funeral Directors Barton Road, Lostock
    • Moss Vale Hotel
    • Therme
    • Surf City on Barton Dock Road – former container base (P&O)
    • Trafford Waters

    I know a lot of our residents would also highlight The Robin Hood pub in Stretford as being of concern to them.

    I’m actively trying to engage with Council Officers and directly with the developers where this is known.

    Parks

    Lostock Park

    I was delighted that yet again Lostock Park was awarded its Green Flag. It’s easy to underestimate what an achievement this is. Big Congratulations to Maureen and the team of volunteers there.

    Kingsway Park

    My colleague Councillors, Jill Axford, Shirley Procter together with our community champion, Mark Tobin, who is selected to be Labour’s candidate for next May have been working on Kingsway Park.

    They’ve been pursuing action to initiate improvements in the park and engagement by the community.

    Lookout for details of a meeting to get going together on bringing in improvement.

    Highway Trees

    I love tree-lined roads. I think they’re something that defines Trafford. However, even I am beginning to back calls in some places for some cutting back. I’ve been particularly engaged with Canterbury Road. And I’m awaiting review.

    These are two very big trees.

    Featured image: Photo by lil artsy from Pexels: https://www.pexels.com/photo/person-holding-orange-pen-1925536/

    All other photos my own

  • Gloomy Outlook for Council Finances

    Gloomy Outlook for Council Finances

    Fierce Winds Conspire, The Dark clouds Do Gather……

    There are times when, a good report with confirmation that you are doing everything that you should do, is the last thing you want to hear. The storm is coming still. 

    We’ve actually had two reports on the council’s sustainability, one following the other. Neither of the two reports provides a route to delivering council services at a level the public aspires to.

    The second of these, our Corporate Peer Challenge, from the Local Government Association is stark reading, but it does little beyond telling us that we’re right to be concerned.

    The earlier report from the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) is the one that’s providing the action plan that came to Accounts and Audit Committee this week.

    There’s a danger that the issues are seen as temporary problems of liquidity that the government could solve. There’s a sense that we’re a special case and it’s nothing the public should worry about; we just need Government to listen. I worry that we’re internalising problems that we won’t solve without the public owning both the problems and the solutions.

    The public has an expectation that our parks and streets should be maintained to a much better standard than the council even dreams about. They do understand that not enough is being spent on them. They therefore have an expectation that if council tax rises, they will see an improvement. The very fact that we’re unable to meet that expectation is proof that the system is broken.

    I think the latest pronouncements from Government on future local government spending suggests that any hope of special treatment for Trafford has now receded. We’re going to have to deal with this.

    How do we balance the cost of funding statutory provision in child and adult care with delivering our everyday environmental services? Can we corral those everyday services so that they are directly commissioned by communities and not subjected to competing pressures in social care? How does community wealth building thrive in the current environment?

    Ideally, we can work with the combined authority and Mayor Andy Burnham. However, the risk is that the Government’s targeting of funding puts us on a different trajectory to most of our Greater Manchester colleague councils. That risk only emphasises the fact that communities are the only allies still irrevocably facing the coming storm with us.

    We must not fall into myopic thinking that balancing the books will be the only test that the public places on us. More than anything they judge us on the state of their neighbourhood. If we can’t insulate spending on neighbourhoods within the council’s spend, I think we ought to be considering alternative models. It may be time for parish councils and/or area boards to come of age.

    Photo by Eg Civic Ferio from Pexels: https://www.pexels.com/photo/sea-under-a-storm-cloud-18608634/

  • Assisted Dying

    This is a very personal view below. I’m not in favour of introducing voluntary euthanasia and at the same time just like everyone else, I can imagine circumstances in which it would be an option. The main point I’m making is that the debate in parliament did not come close to giving due cognisance to the issues.

    There’ll be those that say, indeed did say, that parliament was at its best in debating the assisted dying bill. I profoundly disagree. I felt it was timid, superficial and overly sanitised. I’m not sure the significance of what they were doing was embodied in the debate .

    Societies of all creeds and none have rejected suicide since time immemorial. The fact of the repulsion being so universal suggests something deeper than scripture. Suicide challenges us both in imputing those who survive and in the abandonment of our shared life journeys. I don’t know anything more guaranteed to provoke introspection than the suicide of an acquaintance, no matter how distant.

    There were those in Friday’s debate that wanted to somehow make the act of ending one’s life something different than suicide. There was even a point of order to say that the use of the word suicide was offensive. They didn’t say what the correct words were, or why it was not suicide, just that suicide was an offensive word. This particular snapshot encapsulated the superficiality of the whole debate, the word ‘suicide’ was frowned upon, ‘euthanasia’ was mentioned only once and the method of assisting death (killing themself) hardly touched upon. How can this tiptoeing around the issues be a serious engagement with the subject?

    We really need to be asking ourselves; why now? It’s not as though the pain and indignity at the end of life only began in the new millennium. What is it about our generation that says we want control over our death? Why is the taboo over suicide breaking down now? There may be good answers to all these but I didn’t hear them during the debate.

    I wanted to hear more about how we’re going to avoid creating new taboos. Are we entering a period where choosing to let nature take its course will be frowned upon? The infirm should think of all the work we’re putting on the medical profession and our families. Isn’t it just irresponsible not to ask for the poison?

    The Dutch Health minister who introduced euthanasia to the Netherlands later regretted rushing through the legislation there. By 2017 it accounted for nearly one in 20 deaths. Canada is not far behind. The Netherlands experience probably tells us that this will become normal here. Opinion polls suggest the public wants it. I get that. But that’s no reason for parliament to be so saccharine in weighing up the issues.