Peter Zinkin: Barnet deserves better, and the Conservatives will deliver it

Cllr Peter Zinkin is the Leader of the Conservative Group on Barnet Council.

I have watched with dismay as Labour’s control of our council since 2022 has plunged our borough into financial disarray. Services for residents are already being reduced, prices are being increased above inflation, and trust has been shattered. This year we have had three by-elections in Barnet, two due to the resignation of Labour councillors in unusual circumstances – and, sadly, the death of a Conservative councillor. The lesson from these by-elections, the last only a few weeks ago, is that in each case the Conservatives have won and/or held Reform in third place. More of the Reform vote has come from Labour than the Conservatives – and the Labour/left vote has been very significantly reduced.

Barnet’s finances under Labour are a mess. Since taking over, they have run up a £25 million overspend for 2024/25. In 2022 they inherited a surplus on reserves of more than £100 million. Over the last three years they have exhausted those reserves. This is the result of Labour’s financial illiteracy, foolish spending, and a lack of foresight. One of the first acts when they came into power was to abolish the finance scrutiny committee. They then changed the constitution to return to the cabinet system but failed to appoint a finance cabinet member. We mounted a campaign to correct this and two years in they appointed a Cabinet Member for Finance only for him to resign a few months later as a fraud.

The 2025/26 budget shows the result of their financial ineptitude. Labour’s budget is unbalanced and required Exceptional Financial Support (EFS) from Angela Rayner’s department with borrowing of up to £55 million to deal with the £55 million budget deficit. They have no solution to this deficit, and we expect that more EFS will be required this year and thereafter.

The fallout is already hitting home, with plans to cut ten per cent of council staff, reduce street cleaning, and raise parking and green bin fees. Libraries are at risk, and community hubs like the East Barnet Food Hub face closure, abandoning our most vulnerable.

We Conservatives proposed practical savings two years ago, such as trimming the bloated communications budget, shrinking the cabinet, and cutting staff by a modest 4.7 per cent. Labour ridiculed us, only to later propose harsher cuts in a frantic bid to balance the books. The result is a dirtier, costlier, and diminished Barnet.

Their first Cabinet Member for Financial Sustainability was caught and had to resign from the cabinet and the council for fabricating claims of working at UCL Medical School across his CV and public registers over many years.

This scandal raises serious doubts about Labour’s competence; if their top financial councillor cannot tell the truth, how can they be trusted with Barnet’s budget?

The farce continued with the appointment of the Chairman of the pension fund committee as their new finance lead, only for his replacement as Chairman of the pension committee to resign weeks later in yet further unexplained circumstances: from the committee, as a councillor, the Labour party, and his employment.

The challenge for Conservatives in local government in outer London is that even if all of Labour’s frivolous expenditure is removed, and efficiencies are made to move a Council into the top ten per cent of local government operational performance, deficits will remain. The funding formula does not currently and is not expected to reflect the demographic challenges that the outer London boroughs face. Barnet has over 50 care homes and more nonagenarians than any other London borough. It is now a Borough of Sanctuary which seem to be an invitation to the Home Office to close asylum seeker hostels in adjoining boroughs and move their residents into Barnet; with all the associated demands on housing, medical services, and children’s services.

Combined, the challenge from statutory expenditure in the adult and children’s areas is simply unaffordable. On top of this the cost of temporary accommodation has soared due to landlord unfriendly housing policies and general shortages of accommodation. The combination is toxic to the borough’s finances and local government will lose the trust of the residents if, as a result, universal services for all are cut to pay for services to individual residents, however needy.

Council tax as currently constituted cannot meet these costs and local government is going to have to face up to challenging central government, in the courts, if necessary, about the unreasonableness of responsibilities being imposed on local government without the means to pay for those responsibilities. This is the paradox that all Conservative Councillors will face when they win back councils in 2026.

Barnet deserves better, and the Conservatives will deliver it. Our ambition is to restore financial discipline, protect vital services, and make Barnet a place where businesses thrive and residents feel supported and listened to.

Our prospects are strong, with a united Conservative vote, we can sweep Labour out in 2026 and deliver the leadership Barnet needs. Our campaign will be that, by rallying behind the Conservatives, voters can ensure a return to financial and administrative competence – with our policies focused on what our residents actually need.