The attached press release is about the council denying the opportunity for over two thirds of the council to discuss the Housing Budget, which will be decided by 7 people on the cabinet today. This is a result of the ruling made by officers that we have been handling the process wrong for the last 11 years. It has only come to light in view of the legal research undertaken by officers after the two thirds decision went against the Mayor and her cabinet last March. It is a fundamental change that has not even been presented to Cabinet let alone the rest of the Councillors but is instigated by the council’s legal team. We have learnt to day that we will not be allowed to discuss the Council’s housing capital plan and again that will be decided along with the HRA tomorrow. As a Labour group we have challenged how many other councils in the country have adopted the same approach (executive led councils) and if the reason why it has happened is because we have not been following the legislation and so why have other councils not done the same as NTC, why have our officers not alerted other authorities. We have also asked what CIPFA got to say about this, as well as having met with external auditors last night

Press Release

Labour cry foul over new moves to exclude members

‘Plans to stop members raising concerns about unfair rent rise is the last straw’ – Jim Allan

A storm has broken out in Tyne and Wear’s only Tory council after Labour councillors voiced their concerns over new legal advice removing their opportunity to discuss the council’s Housing Budget and a predicted 5.7% rent rise.

Labour councillors have raised the matter with the council’s external auditor after a series of rulings from the council’s 22 strong legal team which have overturned previous legal opinion which had been followed for 11 years.

The Labour group which has 45 representatives on the council have claimed the council has excluded them from a string of key decisions including the decision to enter into a 10 year, £260m outsourcing contract and removed the existing rule which previously meant that an elected mayor needed to secure a third of council votes to pass their budget.

Now a ruling by the council’s legal team has meant Labour and Liberal Democrat politicians will not be able to even discuss the Housing Budget which is expected to set an inflation busting rise for council rents and has prompted calls to the Monitoring Officer to ‘think again’ .

Labour group leader Jim Allan said

‘We’re concerned that the Council is losing sight of the role of the elected member. There are too many occasions when the Mayor and her senior officers are seeking to make decisions without recourse to the rest of the council. Labour has 45 councillors on this council but we couldn’t stop or amend the Mayor’s last budget which has effectively doubled the council debt. The Mayor isn’t listening and the Council itself is helping her ignore warnings over policy blunders like her brown bin tax. We need to explore whether the council is acting in a lawful manner when excluding councillors because it’s certainly stopping us carrying out an effective role of representing our constituents’.