A recent Guardian report has highlighted how Haringey Council has admitted that action to cut wasteful spending could have been taken years ago. Local taxpayers, faced with the closure of older people’s day centres and cuts to children’s centres, youth services and parks, will be outraged to learn that these cuts could been avoided, Liberal Democrat have said.  
 
The article revealed that the Council was spending £12million a year more than necessary on goods and services like printing, IT, consultants and bottled water.  Opposition councillors say these are yet more examples of Labour’s “out of control” spending.
 
The Council had 14 different bottled water suppliers, spent £5million more than needed on printing, used 60 different consultants and thousands of temp workers. In total, savings of £12million were made on procuring goods and services at cheaper prices. 
 
Liberal Democrats, who have been arguing that Council has been wasting millions due to poor management and procurement for years, have said this is an admission of failure by the Council and have called for further scrutiny of the Council’s finances.
 
Cllr Richard Wilson, Haringey Liberal Democrat Leader, comments:
 
“If Labour had listened to outside criticism this waste could have been identified earlier and millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money could have been saved.
 
“Hard-pressed local taxpayers will be outraged to hear that, instead of closing older people day centres cutting funding for parks and youth services, Labour could have been sticking to their promises to protect front-line services. But this is another example of their out-of-control spending.
 
“Whilst belatedly the Council have acted to reduce costs they should see this as a wake up call and start embracing scrutiny. We need a beefed up watchdog body which can get its teeth into the Council’s finances and ensure local people get value for money.”
 
Lynne Featherstone MP adds:
 
“It is widely known that Labour nationally overspent and contributed to the financial troubles the country is now in. The Council has now admitted that they too failed to act to reduce costs that could and should have protected front-line services.
 
“It is unfair that the most vulnerable residents are losing vital services because of Labour’s inability to keep Council spending under control”.

On the day that marks 40 years of continuous Labour rule in Haringey it has been revealed that the borough is more deprived than at any time in the past decade. Liberal Democrats have branded new deprivation figures, which show Haringey as the 8th most deprived authority in the country, as “the legacy of Labour’s forty years in power”.
 
The figures released by the Government show that since 2000 Haringey has moved from the 28th to the 8th most deprived area in the country, with areas such as Northumberland Park and White Hart Lane continuing to be in the top ten of deprived areas in London.
 
Liberal Democrats have highlighted Labour’s failure to tackle deprivation and inequality in Haringey during their four decades in power. They say that this failure adds to the list of financial and public disasters under Labour in the last 40 years including the bungled sell-off of Alexandra Palace, £37million lost in Icelandic banks, millions of pound overspent on IT schemes, two tragedies due to failures in children’s services, and residents facing the highest Council Tax rates in London.
 
The Indices of Deprivation figures show that, since 2007, three more areas in Haringey are considered as being in the 10% most deprived wards in the country. This is contrary to many Councils in London which have seen a reduction in the amount of deprived areas and have improved their position in the deprivation scale.
 
Cllr Richard Wilson, Haringey Liberal Democrat Leader, comments:
 
“Forty years of Labour and what do local residents get in return – a more deprived borough than at any time in the last decade; a council still recovering after its second children’s services disaster; a council with a list of financial disasters longer than Greece’s and a borough still with massive health and income inequality.
 
“On top of this we now have a Labour administration hell bent on closing children’s centres, cutting youth services and closing older people’s day centres – this is the legacy of forty years of Labour mismanagement. Our residents deserve better.”
 
Lynne Featherstone MP adds:
 
“Labour squandered their chance in government and left our economy in tatters. In Haringey, the forty years of Labour has been punctuated with financial disasters, marred by tragedies and scattered with scandals. I’m just glad we have Liberal Democrat councillors holding this poorly-led Council to account.
 
“Labour in government had years of a booming economy yet failed to meet their own child poverty targets, whilst income inequality actually increased.
 
“After just one year in government Liberal Democrats have lifted 2,900 local residents out of paying any income tax at all, 25,500 of Haringey’s pensioners are being given £4.50 a week more in their pension and our schools are getting extra money through the Pupil Premium.”