While other parties will try to make these elections about other issues, what you as Evening Standard readers will be voting on tomorrow is councillors and councils who decide on important issues in our everyday lives, like how often our bins are collected, how much of our rubbish is recycled, how often our streets are cleaned and how much we pay in council tax.
And when you look at the record of Conservative councils in London compared to Labour and the Lib Dems, the difference could not be starker.
I know that people across London will be feeling the pinch as the cost-of-living rises, exacerbated by a global energy price spike and the war in Ukraine. So keeping bills down and cutting council waste is more important than ever.
It’s why we gave over 20 million households a non-repayable £150 council tax rebate this month. And it’s why I’m proud of Conservative councils like Westminster and Wandsworth, who charge their residents the lowest council tax in the entire country while maintaining regular bin collections and great local services.
Take Revelstoke Road in south-west London. On one side of that street, residents in Band D properties are paying £873 a year in council tax under Wandsworth’s Conservative council. But if you literally cross the road, residents in the same properties on the other side of the street are paying over double, £1,781, with Labour’s Merton council. And pity the poor residents of Kingston, whose Lib Dem council charge the highest council tax anywhere in the capital.
Conservative councils in London can keep council tax down because they are well run — they understand taxpayers’ money must always be spent carefully and wisely. Compare this to Croydon, where Labour have bankrupted the council. They lost £66 million of taxpayers’ money on a series of “risky property investments” and had to get a £134 million bailout from the Government. Or Labour’s Haringey council, which announced plans to spend £186,000 on renaming a single street — despite 72 per cent of residents objecting.
In Barnet, the Conservative council has raised school standards, with the stupendous achievement of 100 per cent of secondary schools in the borough being rated good or outstanding. In Wandsworth, Conservatives are investing £10 million into its town centres and high streets. In Kensington, the Conservative council collects the bins twice a week, whereas Hackney is left to fester with fortnightly bin collections under Labour.
Conservative-run Bexley sends 50 per cent of its rubbish for recycling — this is over double the amount that Labour-run Tower Hamlets and Newham councils do. In fact, Tower Hamlets and Newham are in the worst three councils in the country for making sure our rubbish gets recycled.
The choice tomorrow is simply crystal clear. Conservative councillors working with the Government to deliver on local priorities in your area and managing your council tax wisely. Or Labour and Lib Dem councillors wasting time and money playing politics. My good readers of the Evening Standard, vote Conservative tomorrow.
