Local campaigners are organising a ‘people’s budget’ conference in Enfield, north London. It’s backed by the Socialist Party, the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC), the trade union council, and Your Party supporters in Enfield. Below is an extract from the leaflet promoting the event.
Enfield Council has received an extra £203 million from the government over the next three years. The Labour council can no longer say ‘the money isn’t there’. But, we have to campaign for them to spend it on our services!
The 2026 local elections are a huge opportunity to stand anti-cuts candidates that can expose and cut across all the pro-austerity parties, including Reform.
To build for such a stand, we are organising an open public conference, including representatives of local trade union branches, community organisations, socialist parties, Enfield residents, and others, to discuss our local community needs, so we can draw up a no-cuts ‘people’s budget’ based on those needs, not Keir Starmer’s continued austerity.
Local election candidates will pledge to take these issues and more into the council chambers, demanding the money to pay for it from central government.
Fund our services
56% of children in Enfield live in income-deprived households, the seventh worst local authority in the entire country. Enfield has the highest youth knife crime in London.
We need safe places for young people. But youth service funding in London has been slashed from £145 million to £42 million from 2011-21. At least 130 youth centres have closed, and over 600 youth worker jobs lost. We have gone from an average of 48 youth workers per borough to 15.
Enfield Labour council closed most of its youth services, instead of building a campaign to fight for the money to fund them.
Enfield Labour’s library cuts of £630,000 closed eight local libraries last year. Privatising leisure centres takes these important facilities further out of the reach of young people.
Scandalously, Enfield has 6,401 families on its social housing waiting list, while unaffordable private homes are being built on public land. We need council homes!
Enfield Labour council has over £75 million in reserves. It didn’t have to choose these cuts. Now, Enfield Council has received a 58% increase in what it calls its ‘core spending power’. More to the point, the 100 biggest companies in the UK are paying shareholders £80 billion a year!
The council is in £1.5 billion debt, one of the highest in the country. It spent over £30 million just paying interest on its debt last year. Labour locally raised council tax by 5% last year, and it says it will raise it again this year.
Workers and young people in Enfield need to organise to make sure that this extra funding is used on our services. Reopen the libraries, fund our youth services, and build council houses.
Enfield Trades Union Council, which brings together local trade union branches in the area, has debated and agreed on a campaign for a budget based on the needs of the local community.
Anti-war campaigners correctly call out any links between our council and the arms trade. Councils should be funded by central government to provide all the public services we need, rather than getting into deals with big business, including war profiteers.
Let’s unite in the fight for a budget based on need, and a council that fights for us. We need to stand as many anti-cuts candidates as we can in the local elections in May.
- Come and have your say in what Enfield needs, and what should be included in a ‘people’s budget’ on Sunday 22 February, 1pm-4pm. Above Poundland, Edmonton Green shopping centre, London N9 0TZ