{"id":822157,"date":"2026-03-13T03:47:19","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T03:47:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/822157\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T03:47:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T03:47:19","slug":"sheffield-campaigners-condemn-14-years-of-tory-austerity-in-the-council","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/822157\/","title":{"rendered":"Sheffield campaigners condemn 14 years of Tory austerity in the council"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A Sheffield campaign group has challenged city councillors to fight for the community after real-term cuts left the council with 50% less funding than it had in 2010.<\/p>\n<p>Isabelle France presented the petition at the Sheffield City Council budget meeting, claiming years of financial ignorance have left the council unable to provide for the community. <\/p>\n<p>The petition calls on the council to reduce service cuts and support the city.<\/p>\n<p>The petition followed on from a conference organised last month by Sheffield \u2018Your Party\u2019, the new left-wing group headed up by Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"instagram-media\" style=\"background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);\" data-instgrm-captioned=\"\" data-instgrm-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DVmK4AmDMCA\/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading\" data-instgrm-version=\"14\">\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>France, who is a prominent member of Sheffield\u2019s socialist party, said: \u201cCuts to our budget have meant services are completely disappearing from our city with massive job losses and a growing housing crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The campaign group proposed that the above-inflation council tax rise and a small increase in government funding would not reverse the debilitating damage done to public services. <\/p>\n<p>Between 2018 and 2023 Sheffield City Council spent \u00a314.3 million on consultants and \u00a384.8 million on agency workers whilst during the same period, 454 jobs were lost.<\/p>\n<p>In 2012, 61% of the council budget was spent on private contractors. <\/p>\n<p>France directly criticised outsourcing companies like Veolia and Amey, suggesting they only employ staff who work long hours on minimum pay in poor conditions.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"828\" height=\"622\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/0AA91C47-6C92-49A3-84B8-700D858EE53C.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-68723\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.331210352061061;width:551px;height:auto\"  \/>Campaigners gathered around the entrance, embellished with banners and handmade signs.<\/p>\n<p>France said: \u201cThe council should take all outsourced services back in-house. It is much cheaper to do that than to pay private companies to do it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese private companies cut jobs with low pay and poor conditions, making the lives of workers in Sheffield so much worse.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The campaign directed its petition against the council, suggesting that 18 months into a Labour government, there remains no alternative to austerity under Labour\u2019s fiscal rules.<\/p>\n<p>France not only criticised the Labour party but also took aim at the Green party, suggesting they consistently condemn Labour for not being anti-austerity, yet they may be unprepared to vote against the cuts themselves.<\/p>\n<p>The speech drew on a range of financial issues before France concluded: \u201cThis city deserves better. Please fight for it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"828\" height=\"622\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/A9920E0D-4A92-457B-A36D-FFA6CDEE0797.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-68726\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.331210352061061;width:503px;height:auto\"  \/>The campaigner\u2019s stood fast as the sun shone on the city hall.<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t<script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Sheffield campaign group has challenged city councillors to fight for the community after real-term cuts left the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":822158,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[8817],"tags":[11850,748,10960,393,4884,1620,40089,91174,16,15,152347],"class_list":["post-822157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sheffield","tag-austerity","tag-britain","tag-conservative","tag-england","tag-great-britain","tag-sheffield","tag-sheffield-city-council","tag-south-yorkshire","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-your-party"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116219822024475688","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=822157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822157\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/822158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=822157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=822157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=822157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}