There was a difference of opinion between Isle of Wight council Cabinet members at Tuesday’s Corporate Scrutiny Committee.
Cllr Chris Jarman, the Cabinet member for Strategic Finance, Transformational Change and Corporate Resources, spoke pragmatically about the financial situation the council finds itself in after more than a decade of austerity and ever-reduced funding from the Government.
Palin: Any news on the Island Deal?
The IW Association of Local Council’s representative, East Cowes town councillor Cameron Palin, asked whether there had been any more conversations with the Government about the Island Deal.
He noted the impact of any discussions it could have on the upcoming budget-setting, adding “if by some miracle we were to get this”.
Jarman: We can’t expect somebody on a white horse to come to our rescue
Cllr Jarman told the meeting that the next round of discussions is not until March, which takes the council past the Full Council meeting on 22nd February, when budgets for April 2023 to March 2024 are voted upon.
Cllr Jarman said,
“Being extraordinarily open and perhaps talking from a personal perspective on this one, I think it would be unwise, given everything that has gone in the past, for us to assume that the Tory Government is going to come to our help with a large tranche of funds this year.
“I think their capacity to deal with dispersal of additional resources to local authorities is very, very limited, the Bank of England and others would probably tread on their toes very heavily if they moved in that direction.”
He continued,
“So I think what we have to recognise from this very long ongoing discussion is that we as an Island need to be self sufficient, we need to think in a very inward focused way about what our opportunity space is to develop, every opportunity that presents itself to us and not to expect to find somebody on a white horse coming to our rescue from Westminster.
“I know others might still hang on to that dream, but I think increasingly we have to be very realistic about it.”
The Cabinet member added that in budget-setting they could only assume in the budget those things that they have a strong confidence will actually occur.
Jones-Evans: The Island Deal is our right!
Later, when the meeting turned to the issue of economic recovery, Cllr Julie Jones-Evans, Cabinet member for Levelling Up, Regeneration, Business Development and Tourism, told members how she disagreed with her Cabinet colleague’s view.
In a passionate response, she told the meeting,
“I don’t believe the Island Deal is a dream, it is our right.
“We have articulated our need to the Government very, very clearly for the last seven years now. We have done everything the Treasury has asked us to do to articulate in all different ways, and every time we do the sums, it comes out as more [being needed].
“We deserve this funding, as an island, so we are as resilient as we can be and we will still work towards that, but we deserve proper funding.
“People deserve proper funding and I for one will not give up that fight.”
In the 2019 Conservative Party leadership election campaign, Boris Johnson made the promise of extra government help for the Island, which at that point it has been estimated that providing services on the Island cost the local authority at least £6.4m more than their Mainland counterparts.
