EASTBOURNE MP Caroline Ansell has met the Chancellor Rishi Sunak this week.
And she says LibDem council leader David Tutt needs to do more to help residents:
“I met with the Chancellor this week to discuss the cost of living and what options are available.
It is not for me to announce government policy, but I know ministers are actively looking at a range of options to help in addition to the £22 billion package of support already announced, including £9 billion to help with energy costs.
I was very disappointed that the Liberal Democrat-led borough council did not take up an idea from my Conservative council colleagues to look at dedicating a percentage of the returns from their sale of property assets to fund an emergency scheme for those in need.
I had spoken to the minister – Kemi Badenoch MP, pictured above – at the Department for Levelling Up who was open to dialogue over doing this.
Instead, the council has made a ‘declaration’ about what it thinks the government should do and will now write a letter to the Treasury telling them so.
It is so vitally important the council uses all its own levers and resources at such a time as this. In the name of the people of Eastbourne, it holds several assets it is selling off primarily to fill a financial black hole largely of its own making, but the minister said some of this could potentially be diverted.
It was a golden opportunity missed. I will be writing to the council leader asking him to reconsider.”