The local elections are about the everyday services in your area, not the politics in Westminster
3 min read
For everyone voting tomorrow, it will be a simple choice of who you want running everyday services in your area, and how much you want to be charged for them, says Chris Philp MP.
This evening thousands of council candidates will be knocking on doors across England, in a final flurry to ask people for their votes before tomorrow’s elections.
I’ve joined our campaigners around the country and I know people are feeling frustrated with politics at the moment. But as I’ve said on the doorstep, this is nothing to do with politics in Westminster.
What matters tomorrow is voting for your local council – and voting Conservative is a vote for a well-run council that provides good services and keeps council taxes down.
Local councils look after the things that make a difference day to day, like bin collections and street cleaning. And Conservative councils do that better.
For instance, Conservative councils make sure your bins are collected regularly and that lots of your rubbish is recycled. Last year, Conservative-run councils on average reused, recycled or composted 111,841 tonnes of household waste, whereas Labour-run councils reused, recycled or composted 55,525 tonnes. That is 56,316 tonnes fewer – the weight equivalent of nearly 5,000 Routemaster London buses.
The three best councils for recycling are all Conservative with nearly two thirds of waste they collected being recycled. We’re not just talking about helping the planet, we’re doing it. Our councils also crack down on fly-tipping, with Conservative-run council experiencing less incidents of illegally dumped rubbish on your streets because of a tough approach.
And we’re supporting your high streets and local shops, with Government and Councils working hand in hand. At the start of April, we cut business rates again for small shops and pubs and we have also launched a Future High Streets fund, where councils can bid for funding to help improve their high streets.
Conservative councils do all this while charging lower council tax than Labour and the Lib Dems. Council tax in Conservative councils is - on average – £93 less on a typical Band D home than in Labour councils and £137 less than in Liberal Democrat councils.
The alternative for most areas is having the increasingly hard-left Labour party seizing control of your council. These people care more about fighting internal ideological battles than the needs of residents. Where they’ve had the chance, they have blocked the building of much-needed homes for local people, supported bin strikes and called for huge hikes in council tax.
Tomorrow, nearly 9,000 council seats are up for election – last contested in 2015. For everyone voting, it will be a simple choice of who you want running everyday services in your area, and how much you want to be charged for them. When considering these things, the choice is clear: vote for your local Conservative councillors tomorrow.
Chris Philp is Conservative MP for Croydon South and Vice Chair of the Conservative Party.
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