{"id":22365,"date":"2020-06-25T16:48:26","date_gmt":"2020-06-25T15:48:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=22365"},"modified":"2020-06-25T16:48:27","modified_gmt":"2020-06-25T15:48:27","slug":"bring-council-services-in-house-call","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=22365","title":{"rendered":"Bring council services in-house call"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n\n<p>Unite which represents tens of thousands of local authority workers, is calling for\u00c2\u00a0bold action\u00c2\u00a0to\u00c2\u00a0be taken to avert a financial crisis from engulfing\u00c2\u00a0local authorities\u00c2\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"\/Users\/barckley.sumner\/Documents\/Unite%20work\/Unite%20Press%20Release\" target=\"_blank\">after it was revealed that several councils are facing bankruptcy while many more are in severe financial difficulties due to the Covid-19 pandemic<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Unite national officer for local government Jim Kennedy said,\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe latest warning about the financial crisis facing many councils must be the spur for an ambitious reconstruction plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bLocal and central government need\u00c2\u00a0to come together to work on a programme of reconstruction equivalent in scale and ambition to that of\u00c2\u00a0the post-war years,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;A failure to do so will result in a period of austerity and economic depression not seen since the 1930s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bA key principle behind such a programme must be a huge move to bring\u00c2\u00a0public services in-house.\u00c2\u00a0 In-house services\u00c2\u00a0have consistently been shown to provide better quality, are cheaper, and more able to cope in a crisis such as a pandemic than private providers,&#8221; Kennedy went on to say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThere must also be huge investment in retrofitting council properties to dramatically reduce the UK&#8217;s\u00c2\u00a0carbon footprint,\u00c2\u00a0and a huge increase in training for young people to ensure they possess the skills needed in a post-Covid-19 world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt simply must not be forgotten or ignored that council workers have been on the frontline and have performed an amazing job throughout the pandemic.\u00c2\u00a0 These workers\u00c2\u00a0have shown extreme fortitude and flexibility in keeping services operating during the most challenging, difficult and dangerous circumstances they have ever experienced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe jobs, pay and conditions of council workers must not in any shape or form be treated as collateral damage in the financial crisis now engulfing\u00c2\u00a0councils.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/unitetheunion.org\/news-events\/news\/2020\/june\/unite-s-worthmore-campaign-for-council-workers-steps-up-with-call-on-councillors\/\" target=\"_blank\">Unite has launched a #WorthMore campaign which is calling on local government employers to improve this year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s proposed pay rise which is worth on average just \u00c2\u01411.83 a day for the lowest paid and follows a decades of below inflation pay rises.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>By Barckley Sumner<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Unite which represents tens of thousands of local authority workers, is calling for\u00c2\u00a0bold action\u00c2\u00a0to\u00c2\u00a0be taken to avert a financial crisis from engulfing\u00c2\u00a0local authorities\u00c2\u00a0after it was revealed that several councils are facing bankruptcy while many more are in severe financial difficulties due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Unite national officer for local government Jim Kennedy said,\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe latest [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":462,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1308,1],"tags":[1295,998,1351],"wps_subtitle":"Unite calls for bold action to avert local authority financial crisis","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22365"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22365"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22365\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22367,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22365\/revisions\/22367"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}