‘For Brighton to thrive and grow it must be more equal’

But after 14 years of Tory rule, I see a city that’s been degraded, widening inequality and my inbox is full of desperate residents facing evictions or having been made homeless, stuck indefinitely in temporary or emergency accommodation unable to move forward with their lives and find permanent housing in the city they call home.

So when the Centre for Cities 2024 outlook report was published last week I was interested to see how we are performing compared with other cities across the UK. The good news is, we are punching well above our weight. Brighton and Hove is one of the seven fastest-growing cities in the UK and we have the highest number of “new economy” firms. This includes emerging knowledge-intensive sectors like FinTech and advanced manufacturing that are at the forefront of new technologies and innovations. We’re also one of the best cities to start a business and are in the top ten for net new job creation, just behind major cities including London, Manchester and Liverpool.

Unfortunately, we are falling behind in other areas. Unacceptably, our city ranks as one of the worst for affordable housing and the average house price in Brighton and Hove is £155,800 more than the national average. This is having a knock-on-effect on our population, on our schools, and on our productivity.

We want those raised in our city to be able to make their life here and for families to be able stay, but it is exactly these people that are being pushed out, having to move elsewhere along the coast or in the region to have the number of bedrooms and space they need.

Of course, our city does not sit in isolation from the rest of the UK, and the overall report showed the UK economy has badly stagnated since 2010, when the Conservatives came to power. In fact, as the report states, if disposable incomes at the national level had continued to grow at the rate they did between 1998 and 2010 when Labour were in power, then on average people would have had an extra £10,200 to spend.

The Conservatives have long claimed to be the stewards of prudent financial management but the last 14 years have shown they are anything but. The austerity agenda of Osborne-Cameron in 2010, which saw deep spending cuts to public services and welfare, has been rebadged in various forms by subsequent Tory leaders. Whatever you call it – austerity, Brexit without a plan, Trussonomics, tough decisions on the economy – ultimately it means Tory cuts so deep that in 2024 Britain, the gap between rich and poor has widened, young people are now worse off than their parents at their age and home ownership has declined steeply.

One of the most shocking findings of the report was that in every UK city including ours there has been an increase in children living in relative poverty. As your Labour council we are determined to pull every lever we have to raise living standards for all, address our housing crisis and reduce inequality. So last week we announced we were ringfencing the council tax reduction scheme next year, ensuring over 19,000 residents including our care leavers receive a discount equalling over £18 million. We have also announced plans to increase council tax on second homes and empty homes to incentivise owners to bring them back into use. And our children’s committee has approved a new policy which means children in receipt of free school meals are given priority in secondary school admissions.

Tomorrow, our Labour administration’s budget proposals for the 2024-25 financial year will be published. Our authority has been asked by central government to accept a real-terms cut of approximately £33 million next year. This is the largest financial cut Brighton and Hove has faced, and we have had to make extremely difficult decisions to prevent us from joining the growing list of councils that have declared bankruptcy.

These are difficult times, but with a future Labour government I believe our city can be rescued from Tory decline. The truth is that our city and country cannot move forward if some of us are held back and for our city to thrive and grow, it must be more equal.

Bella Sankey is Labour leader of Brighton and Hove City Council