When it comes to inequality, poverty and scrutiny of national policies, our local administration seems content to let the engine idle while residents struggle in the back.
It feels that the solution for the national economy is to reduce hours and close libraries in Brighton and Hove and elsewhere.
The headline “Brighton council underspends by £1 million in last financial year” didn’t mention anything but this magic underspending coming from closing libraries.
Was it the magic austerity fairies at work again? You go to sleep and, when you wake up, another library is closed. Happy underspending day, everyone!
Look, the Health Counts 2024 survey makes the picture plain. It’s not just statistics. It’s the lived reality of thousands of residents. And the fact is this: Brighton and Hove is a city divided by postcode and the council isn’t doing nearly enough to close the gap.
According to the survey, 69 per cent of adults rate their health as good, very good or excellent. That sounds hopeful, until you dig a little deeper.
In the most deprived areas, only 56 per cent feel in good health, compared to 76 per cent in the wealthiest neighbourhoods.
The inequality gap has widened since 2003. In other words, where you live still determines how long and how well you live. This isn’t a chance. It’s policy.
Years of austerity followed by timid national changes have shifted the burden on to local services but where is the council’s fire in holding Westminster to account?
The figures are devastating. 38 per cent of adults report high anxiety. One in ten adults reports poor health outright. Yet we hear little more than polite statements about “partnership working”.
Where is the demand for urgent, properly funded mental health services? Where is the outrage at policies that squeeze benefits, raise rents and then expect overstretched GPs to mop up the fallout?
The survey indicates that 85 per cent of residents are cutting back due to the rising cost of living. Four in ten are spending less on food. One in five people is concerned about their housing conditions, with issues such as dampness and cold being disproportionately concentrated in poorer areas.
In the most deprived areas of Brighton and Hove, 35 per cent of people report low happiness, compared to just 17 per cent in the least deprived areas.
This isn’t just about “individual choices”. Poverty is structural. It’s created and entrenched by welfare decisions, funding to local authorities and by wage stagnation.
But an administration worth its salt should be banging on the government’s door, not shrugging and passing the food bank donation tin.
Nearly half of residents in those same areas feel unsafe walking at night. What’s more, hate crime, harassment and violence are disproportionately feared and experienced by marginalised groups: LGBTQ+ people, adults with disabilities and black and racially minoritised communities.
These inequalities aren’t invisible. They’re written into the survey in bold ink. Inequality doesn’t just happen. It’s the product of political decisions, both national and local.
When Labour nationally scraps universal winter fuel payments and tinkers with national insurance, the poorest pensioners bear the brunt of the cost and people with disabilities fear that their support will be reduced or cut.
When local councils, fearful of rocking the boat, avoid challenging those national policies, don’t they become complicit? Scrutiny isn’t optional. It’s the bedrock of democracy.
If councillors won’t question the decisions made in Westminster, then who will? If they can’t stand up for pensioners choosing between heating and eating, for young people facing record levels of self-harm or for families cutting meals to pay rent, then what exactly is their role?
Approximately 49 per cent of adults consume five or more portions of fruit and vegetables daily. Surveys like Health Counts 2024 are not just “data”. They’re a call to action.
Each percentage point represents thousands of neighbours struggling. Scrutiny must mean more than a polite nod. The council should openly challenge national policies that worsen inequality, undermine human rights and erode solidarity.
Our city is tired of polite excuses. Tired of national governments promising fairness while delivering austerity in new packaging. Tired of local councils being more concerned with party loyalty than residents’ wellbeing.
We need an administration that wouldn’t just measure inequality, it would fight it tooth and nail. It would treat every statistic as a demand for justice, every act of scrutiny as an act of solidarity with the people it serves.
The question for Brighton and Hove is simple: will the local administration wake up and start driving forward the much-needed scrutiny or will it continue to support a well-oiled machine running in reverse?
Councillor Bruno De Oliveira is an Independent member of Brighton and Hove City Council and former chair of the Health and Wellbeing Board.
If only others within the Labour council had the backbone to stand up and say the direction of the government and the decision to continue austerity is wrong.
Like Bruno says “an administration worth its salt should be banging on the government’s door, not shrugging and passing the food bank donation tin”. The fact so many Labour backbench councillors (or front bench!) are not speaking out about the damage cuts and and non-reversal of the Tory’s damaging austerity are having on residents in the city is dreadful.
I find it quite something that Cllr Bruno can say all this but he himself didn’t have enough backbone to actually do anything, apart from leave the Labour party and become an independent councillor , who cannot do anything on his own. Isn’t it better to actually take a positive action, rather than throwing your toys out of the pram. What does that achieve exactly? Absolutely nothing. He had a position where he could influence but instead chose to do nothing, apart from cry and leave the room. The Labour council administration have actually done quite a lot in the last 2 years where local poverty is concerned. Cllr Bruno could have actually influenced whatever he felt was the right thing to do but he didn’t. He left the room. He took the easy option. One of doing nothing. And then he cries about it in the news. Honestly, where is his spine, his courage, his dedication? What a spineless coward. Probably just as well he is no longer part of the Labour administration. Our city needs councillors running the city who have a bit more strength than he has.
I both agree and disagree with you here.
I absolutely agree that being on the inside, where one is in a position to make positive changes, is the most effective way forward to challenge the issues Bruno raises. I’ve also noticed that Bruno tends to talk a lot about national politics, which I still believe is generally outside the remit of a Ward Councillor. One would be better served working on local solutions and proving concepts that can then be adapted to the national level on their merit.
However, I also think we should respect the principle of choosing to go independent based on one’s morals. It’s a brave thing to do, and it will have alienated him to do so. Maybe this move has allowed him a voice he didn’t feel he had? Labour has a real communication problem; it’s terrible at articulating itself, often to the detriment of projects that have a good logical merit behind them. I think Bruno is likely a victim of that as well.
Aha – North Brighton Sunshine who writes like a Labour councillor because of their blind defence of them all the time is back with a vengence! Can’t help but wonder which one of the Labour councillors it could be writing under a pseudonym or which Labour Party member who is close to their decision making they are…
Whoever it is, Bruno seems to have really got under their skin! 🙂
Concerning info well backed up by stats.