Barnet community fight
Barnet council in north London receives a relatively low grant settlement from central government because it is a relatively prosperous borough. However, it has large pockets of deprivation. The current Tory council makes a lot of central government “unfairness” when it wants to justify its plans to cut services and to go in for extensive outsourcing (the “Future Shape” programme). But, at the same time, the council consistently neglects poorer areas. Overdue regeneration of the worst housing estates (formerly council, now run by an ALMO, Barnet Homes) are grinding to a halt in the credit...