Government award £3.2m to Norwich after successful Lib. Dem. tenure (Norwich Liberal Democrats Online)

Norwich Liberal Democrats Online <info@norwichlibdems.org.uk>

Government award £3.2m to Norwich after successful Lib. Dem. tenure

March 12, 2007 3:17 PM

Cllr Hereward Cooke, Leader of the Liberal Democrats on Norwich City Council, has put the record straight to show how successfully the party managed the Council's finances and the City's economy.

In a letter published in the EDP on 9th March, he wrote:

"Ever since the elections of last May, the Labour party in Norwich has been accusing the Lib Dems of leaving the City's finances in poor shape. We owned up to a deficit of £440,000 due to unforeseen costs but now a reward for successful management of the Norwich economy under our watch has produced a retrospective surplus of over £2.7million!

"The reason for this is that the Government set up a scheme, the Local Authority Business Growth Incentive, to which the Lib Dems responded with both enthusiasm and success," he continued. "This scheme rewarded those Councils who had created new businesses to such an extent that the commercial rateable base increased by more than a certain percentage. We managed that and more.

"As a direct result of our business and job-friendly policies, the Government has just awarded the City a no-strings-attached grant of £3.2 million in recognition of new wealth brought to Norwich during our administration.

"We had originally reckoned that such a grant would be £1million but could not of course take credit for it until it was officially confirmed. Now our business-friendly policies have been properly recognised and justified.

"Such a windfall grant to the City puts into perspective the miserly decision by the present Labour administration with the support of the Green Party to cut £50k from the grant to Visit Norwich Ltd which creates both jobs and businesses in the tourism sector.

"Such a cut is like killing the goose nurtured by the Lib Dems which has produced such a golden and successful nest-egg for the future. I hope that we will now have heard the last of all the unjustified jibes directed at the Lib Dems. We left the City's finances in very good shape," concluded Cllr Cooke.