Hillingdon Council – Our Approach

Liberal Democrat Councillors will 

• Work for you all the year round not just at election times
• Be open and transparent with residents, reporting back on a regular basis the action taken on your behalf
• Listen to what residents tell us and ensure that resident’s feedback is given to the council to influence its decisions

Hillingdon Council should be

• Open and transparent: decision making meetings should be easily accessible open to the public and accessible through live streaming and recordings, so you can see what is decided
• Responsive: the Council should encourage participation and feedback, providing regular opportunities for the public to question their activities and get answers
• Local: the Council should establish local forums in the different locations in the borough with opportunities for participation and with budgets to make local improvements for their areas
• Efficient: providing details of standards that services aim to meet and publishing whether those standards have been met in an easily accessible form
• Cost Effective: by committing to taking no more taxes and charges than is absolutely necessary and regularly reviewing value for money and publishing the results
• Encouraging Community: working with residents and local voluntary groups to build community cohesion and partnership sharing a positive vision for local residents

Hillingdon In Crisis

After many years in charge, the Conservatives have created a financial crisis for the borough. The external auditors have ruled that the financial records were so unreliable that they did not know whether they were accurate. The Conservatives have admitted that the Council’s problems are so extreme that they require a £150 million bail-out to get through the next three years in addition to a government write off of 90% of the £76m overspend on Special Education Needs.

After years of pretending that they could keep taxes down and maintain services, Conservatives are increasing Council Tax by the maximum permissible and increasing charges on parking, leisure facilities and green waste collection by 10%. Large increases in taxes and charges for the second year running. The Conservatives are making our cost of living crisis worse. Services are being cut and Council House rents and service charges are also increasing.

This financial crisis leaves a big mess for any successor group of councillors to clear up. It would be irresponsible in these circumstances to make any extravagant promises but Liberal Democrats do promise to be prudent with the public purse.

Nationally Liberal Democrats are campaigning for an emergency cut in energy bills, a VAT cut for hospitality businesses  and reformed local taxation to solve the cost of living crisis.