Stop Slicing the Pie. Start Growing It.

There is something fundamentally wrong with the way we are approaching the future of our communities.

When the money is tight, the easiest answer is to take from one place and give to another. Slice the pie a little thinner here, a little thinner there, and tell ourselves that we have made the system fairer.

But if the pie is not growing, all we have done is create new losers.

That is the problem I see with the Government’s Fair Funding Review.

Kensington and Chelsea is facing the removal of more than £100 million from its budgets over four years — more than 40 per cent of the Council’s controllable budget. The Council is warning that the consequences will ultimately be felt through difficult choices about services and council tax. (Kensington and Chelsea Consultation Hub⁠ )

This is not an abstract argument about spreadsheets and funding formulas.

It is about the people who use our services.

It is about an elderly resident who needs care, a family facing homelessness, a disabled child who needs support, a street that needs maintaining, a community facility that keeps people connected.

And it is about the thousands of people who contribute enormously to the economy and the Exchequer but are increasingly being told that the place they live should simply accept less.

The Government argues that its reforms are about directing funding towards areas of greater assessed need. That is a legitimate objective. But fairness cannot simply mean taking from one community to give to another.

Fairness should also mean creating more.

This is where I believe we are missing the bigger opportunity.

Why are we constantly debating how to divide a fixed pot when we should be asking how we make the pot bigger?

Why are we taking from Peter to pay Paul rather than asking how we can help Paul develop his talents, find better opportunities and contribute more?

That is how sustainable communities are built.

We should be looking at growth, enterprise, investment, skills, employment, housing, regeneration and the enormous economic contribution made by London. We should be asking how every community can become more productive and more prosperous — not simply which community should receive a larger slice of a shrinking share.

London is not a problem to be solved by reducing its contribution.

London is one of the country’s greatest economic assets.

And yet London Councils is now warning of a cumulative £5.2 billion funding shortfall for London’s boroughs between now and 2030, with an estimated £1.2 billion gap in this financial year alone. (London Councils⁠ )

That should concern all of us, wherever we live.

Because when councils are forced to make increasingly difficult choices, the impact does not remain neatly inside a council boundary. It affects local economies, jobs, businesses, housing, social care and the quality of the places in which people live.

Where are our MPs?

This is also where I think we need a much more honest conversation about political representation.

Kensington and Bayswater and Chelsea and Fulham have elected MPs who have a responsibility not only to their party but to the communities they represent.

I do not expect every MP to agree with their council.

I do expect them to speak plainly when decisions made by their own Government have consequences for their constituents.

There is a difference between being loyal to a political party and being accountable to the people who elected you.

Our communities deserve MPs who will ask difficult questions, challenge decisions when necessary and make the case for their constituents — even when that is uncomfortable.

Silence is not representation.

Nor is quietly accepting a policy because challenging it may be politically inconvenient.

We need a bigger ambition

I am not arguing that every pound of public money should remain exactly where it is today.

Nor am I arguing that councils should never be expected to reform, find efficiencies or do things differently. Local government must always scrutinise how it spends taxpayers’ money. We have a responsibility to do so.

But there is a difference between reforming a system and simply redistributing scarcity.

If the answer to every difficult financial question is to take money from one community and move it to another, eventually everybody is fighting over a smaller piece of the same pie.

That is not an economic strategy.

It is a redistribution strategy.

We should be much more ambitious.

Grow the economy.

Create opportunities.

Unlock investment.

Help people into work.

Support businesses to expand.

Build the homes and infrastructure that allow communities to thrive.

And give local government the freedom and resources to innovate rather than continually forcing councils into a cycle of cuts, savings and crisis management.

Because communities are not numbers on a funding formula.

They are people, businesses, families, neighbourhoods and aspirations.

And if we really believe in building a fairer country, then surely the ambition should be to create more opportunity for everyone — not simply to decide who gets the smaller piece.