At the February Budget setting meeting, Harrow Conservative Councillors agreed the first balanced budget for many years.

Previous Labour budgets have relied heavily on using the Council savings (reserves) to plug black holes in the Council's budget. The trouble with doing this is that eventually you run out of money, as can be seen in Croydon which has had to declare bankruptcy multiple times.

The Conservative administration has managed to close the budget gap so that no reserves were required for this years budget. There were also no major cuts to any of the Council's essential services.

Sadly, Harrow's Labour Councillors tried to score petty political points and criticised the Conservative leaderships plans to reduce the Council's bloated back office bureaucracy and oversized middle management structure.

The budget proposed and agreed by the Labour Party last year relied on using £14 million from the Council's savings just to cover day to day expenditure. This was reckless and unsustainable use of taxpayers money.

Under the Conservatives, Harrow Council is putting residents first while also ensuring the Council is on a firm financial footing to protect services for years to come.