The council’s biggest problem is  the economic system that we live in. It doesn’t have enough money to care for the city and its residents in the way that it should at a time when the need has grown.

It’s paying more to provide services for adults and children because so many are provided by profit-making private companies  

Austerity has given the private sector much more power in our city. Less public funding means we are more dependent on private investment. Business rates are a bigger proportion of council funding so councils are more dependent on the business sector – which gives them a lot of influence over decisions. Existing businesses demand help and potential investors expect the public sector to pick up the risk . Cash-strapped councils are reluctant to defend planning and licensing decisions at potentially expensive appeals.

Newcastle Labour was in a very difficult position post-2011 due to austerity policies brought in by the Conservative and Lib Dem coalition government. Perhaps they genuinely thought that establishing economic credibility with the government by and making a mayoral devolution deal that was only worth of a tiny fraction of what had been lost in funding was the only way to preserve what they could for communities. Or perhaps they dressed up rightwing economics with some social justice to disguise what was really happening. (For me this sums up the two wings of New Labour: Gordon Brown convinced himself that the good he did outweighed the bad and Tony Blair used doing good to cover up what was really going on.) 

Whatever the motivation, the result was: public money for private projects; a ‘developer-friendly’ attitude to planning; privatised parks and residents who felt increasingly let down.

The council has repeatedly failed to protect its interests. It’s loaned millions of pounds to projects on the basis of assets of debatable value (the Crowne Plaza) or no security at all (City Pool), resulting in huge losses. It’s subsidised the Christmas Market while simultaneously claiming it’s a huge economic success. (If the market has such a positive impact why isn’t the business community that benefits paying for it?). It hails every development as positive, even if the actual impact will be to take money out of the city and  it’s repeatedly overruled its own licensing policy in the interests of the hospitality sector.

The council is also secretive. It won’t say what discussions it has had with NUFC about Leazes Park despite a public petition and numerous FOIs. It won’t say how much it spent to bring the MOBOs and Mercury Prize to Newcastle. It won’t publish the report into governance concerns. It won’t be open about failed projects. Why did the council carry on making loans to the Crowne Plaza? Residents will never find out, even though it’s their money that’s been lost. And the council introduced changes that make it even more difficult to ask questions or scrutinise decisions.

The situation’s never been perfect. There has always been lobbying, overly cosy relationships with some businesses; councillors who were happy to let others make their decisions for them; and an officer-led culture with too many officers who thought they knew better than residents about what was good for them. We even had Going for Growth, a regeneration project based on knocking down thousands of council houses. But there was always some sense of connection to and responsibility towards residents. That connection is now broken in Newcastle.

It’s broken because Newcastle’s Labour administration has repeatedly chosen to prioritise business over residents, to give in rather than to fight back.

There was opposition within the Labour Group to what’s happened since 2011, which eventually led to the election of Nick Kemp as Council Leader after he promised to ‘get the basics right’ for residents. That didn’t happen and now that a new Labour Government has carried on with the old Conservative policies, Newcastle Labour councillors have to agree that austerity is good, business interests come before people and that AI is the future.

What’s wrong with Newcastle City Council is that it doesn’t work for residents any more. And that won’t stop until there are enough councillors willing to fight for real change.