Yet again, Rugby has been overlooked as the Conservative government throws a few breadcrumbs of funding at what they term “overlooked” towns.
What have the local Conservatives been doing? We have a Tory MP, the Tories run the local Borough Council and County Council and their parliamentary candidate is a Warwickshire County Councillor, yet still our town has been overlooked.
Rugby’s Conservative politicians have a track record of inaction and complacency. Rugby missed out on the first round of the government’s Levelling-Up Fund in 2021. Then we missed our on the second round in January this year.
We haven’t even managed to implement a Community Infrastructure Levy locally, a charge on developers to fund local infrastructure, despite this being available to local authorities like Rugby Borough Council for over a decade. Because of the inaction of Rugby’s Conservatives, and despite the enormous amount of housing and other development in our borough, we have missed out on millions that could have helped the entire area, and indeed the town centre.
And now to add insult to injury, Rugby isn’t included in this latest funding for towns.
It’s a bit rich of Rishi Sunak to offer this extra cash to a tiny number of towns, after over 13 years in which his Conservative party have been cutting funding to local governments that administer our towns. The Tories cut funding to local authorities by 40% in real terms between 2009/10 and 2019/20, only reversing this trend slightly in response to the pandemic.
I see day-in day-out as a local Councillor how Tory cuts to council budgets mean that our public services, housing provision, and indeed town centre regeneration work are put under enormous strain.
Why is it only now, after 13 years in power that the government wakes up to the fact that our towns are vital both to the local economy and to our sense of civic pride?
Additional funding is much needed and our local Conservatives must do better in fighting for Rugby.
I’m on Rugby Borough Council’s Town Centre Regeneration Working Group and am working with councillors from all parties to improve Rugby town centre. I’m pushing for Labour’s priorities around revitalising the high street, boosting the local economy, developing the entertainment and cultural offering, and making the better use of under-utilised buildings.
I’ll always work constructively in the best interests of the town and wider constituency.
I’m seeking to be selected to be Labour’s next parliamentary candidate, and if I’m successful, I will hold our local Conservatives to account on this and other issues and keep championing Rugby so that we are not again an ‘overlooked’ town.
My reflections on this can be viewed below:
