In recent weeks Julia Lopez MP has been contacted by hundreds of constituents in connection to Havering Council's funding position. Over this time, Mrs Lopez has been informing constituents of her efforts to support the council in presenting its case to ministers, both under the Conservatives and the new Labour government. Having secured today a meeting between the Council's Chief Executive and the Local Government Finance Minister, Baroness Taylor, Mrs Lopez provided an update to constituents about the discussion. A copy of that update is provided below:

Dear Resident,

We have previously been in touch about Havering Council's finances and the concern about long-term issues around the grant the borough gets from central government and new cost pressures from things like the Budget's National Insurance rise. 
 
I wanted to let you know that this week, I arranged a meeting between the Council's Chief Executive and the Local Government Finance Minister, Baroness Taylor. At that meeting, I set out to the Minister how the grant does not take into account the size of the population with social care and other needs. The cost of providing services to those people is squeezing the amount of money available for other things Havering must provide, and that cost pressure is being exacerbated by the substantial rise in National Insurance contributions that has followed the Chancellor's Budget. The provisional settlement, announced in December, has also disadvantaged Havering.
 
The Council set out to the Minister the ways in which it wants to become financially sustainable in the longer term but how it needs support from the government to get through the coming years. The Minister was sympathetic to the Council's case and said that there will be a new funding formula devised this year. That will build on detailed work undertaken by the last government to address funding inequities. 
 
She also said that additional money would likely come to cover some of the National Insurance pressures but that that will not account for inflation in the supply chain as local businesses also hit by NICs costs pass those onto Havering Council in higher prices. 
 
Officials have said they will stay in touch with Havering Council's team, and I will continue to support them in those conversations. I am sorry not to provide you with a clearer outcome at this stage but I will continue to work with the Council, as I always have, to push for a funding formula that properly takes into account Havering's true population needs.

With best wishes,
Julia