In a series of election blogs, Confelicity Mayor of Essex, James Miller, lays down his overall quest and what can and can't be done in the role

What can a Mayor of Greater Essex do?

The Mayor of Essex, along with their team known as the Mayoral Combined County Authority (MCCA), which is made up of three Essex County Councillors, two Southend councillors and two Thurrock councillors and another seven non-constituent members and associate associate members, will be empowered by the government to oversee a multitude of strategic areas including: transport and infrastructure, housing and planning, economic development and regeneration, skills and employment, health and well-being, taking over powers of the Police, Crime, Fire and Rescue Commissioner.

The government has also deemed this team worthy of a 30-year ‘Investment Fund’. I am not entirely sure how much that amounts to, but it is there to drive economic growth and can be spent on day-to-day services.

To quote the government, “the framework is the floor, not the ceiling”. In other words, all being well and the Mayoral council behaves itself according to government approval, much more money, power and influence will be bestowed upon them.

However, before anyone gets the wrong end of the stick, Greater Essex (Essex, Southend-on-Sea and Thurrock) will be divided into three, four or five councils - depending on Local Government Reorganisation - and they will continue to have authority over council tax, budgets, parking, school, social care, etc, and the Mayor is not the boss over the councils.

I have already stated that I am dead against this revolution that seems to me to be a huge waste of money, increase bureaucracy unnecessarily and serves mainly to be a tool to do the government’s bidding. The last point is made clear by the government white paper constantly using the phrase “to fulfil the government’s missions”. For my full blog on this go to: https://www.southendconfelicityparty.co.uk/post/james-miller-will-be-standing-as-mayor-of-essex-for-the-confelicity-party-in-2026

If our taxes weren’t high enough, this new Mayoral council is entitled to demand a precept, which will be added to our current council tax. I do not want to do this, and if it is unavoidable, I will make sure it is as non-existent as possible. I will also not be accepting the £150K salary. As self-righteous as it may well be, leading by example starts at the top and for too long those at top table have fallen short.

Confelicity

The Confelicity Party are standing on the platform of ‘local’, as we believe those who live in any particular area should have more money, power and influence to make decisions about the very places they step outside their doors every morning from and can see first hand what needs to be changed. No national ties - just locally driven policies made for the residents by the residents. Although the Mayor cannot rule over the councils directly, I will be going to residents for their opinions on every vote that is in the Mayors remit. We hold meetings every month so it should not slow anything down!

An important point to note about the Confelicity Party is that all policies must be unanimously agreed for it to make the manifesto. However, each member is free to make their own decisions in debates where unanimous agreement could not be found and this applies to myself. In this sense, throughout the upcoming blogs, where I have said ‘Confelicity’, it means agreed party policy. Where I say ‘I’, it means this is my own opinion where a subject either has not yet been debated or the motion did not get unanimously agreed. Political apathy, we believe, has been driven in large part by the lack of actual power and influence anyone has over policy-making. Therefore, we wanted to bring true democracy back to politics rather than be just a talking shop where opinions disappear in the wind.  We took a bit of a chance designing the party like this, but it turns out that most people agree about most things most of the time. My Mayoralty would be driven by this system where the true feelings and thoughts of residents will directly impact the final decisions I make.

Being a "front-line" Mayor of Essex Getting our house in order"

Do you remember when Theresa May kept on repeating "strong and stable"’? and Boris "Get Brexit Done"? Well for us, our oft-repeated and maybe not so catchy line will be that I am looking to be the "front-line’ Mayor of Essex" where I will personally be involved in the areas that are most important to Essex residents, with the intention to get our house in order first before spending £millions on non-essential capital acquisitions. I speak at length in my blog about transport about how I would look to battle the age-old problem of pot holes - a council level issue that the Mayor will have influence over.

In regard to getting our house in order, how many times do we hear of a new set of eye-watering government spending - be it on a local or national level or capital “investment” or unsustainable pay rises, particularly to the top executives - when at the same schools lack facilities, NHS waiting times are bursting, sewage pipes overflowing, adult and child social care costs are going through the roof and homelessness still exists in our modern world.

What compounds this absurdity is that we are told there is no money! Either we are broke or stop spending money we don’t have - which is it? In an ideal world I would love to give council tax rebates where money that has not been required is given back. In an even more ideal world I would love to hold local referendums on the big issues residents have made clear they have serious problems with such as substantial capital acquisitions for example.

Spending in the wrong order

We have just recently heard of Labour’s new policy to allow councillors across the country to receive a pension costing £billions. Much worse is their dystopian Digital ID card scheme, which if it is anything like the COVID app, will creep close to £100 billion all in and that excludes operating costs which will no doubt be the same again.

In Southend, the Labour council acquired a shopping centre for £10m then paid another £4m for repairs; they were about to lend £10m to developers with no money to build a bowling alley next to a bowling alley in a forlorn attempt to mimic Festival Leisure Park in Basildon; and have recently green-lit filling in a vital underpass - against the wishes of the city - so they do not have to pay back a multi-million pound grant to central government! In Basildon they went all in with the acquisition of the Westgate Shopping Centre for a shopping £18.5m, while Thurrock’s well publicised £100m solar farm disaster effectively bankrupted the council. Despite Uttlesford District Council spending £45m to acquire a 50 per cent share in Chesterford Research Park which has been reported to have doubled in value, this money has been deprived from residents all this time. All these investments have a direct cost in £millions in interest payments that reduce the amount that could be used to fix the roof of a school for example.

Southend has just gone to fortnightly bin collections and replaced a perfectly good system with the unsightly bins that are totally unsuitable for the majority of properties.  Why? Because apparently we cannot afford it. At least Basildon Labour did the decent thing and reversed their poor decision.

Spending transparency

Getting our house in order starts with the money, and the Confelicity Party has already pledged to make all public finances available to the public.  This includes all transactions below £500, which currently can be hidden from the public. We must see what is going on because we have all asked the question: why are we paying so much more for so much less?

The mystery about all this is the red line between capital and revenue budgets for one must not cross the other. Residents often ask why money is spent, say, on a piece of art, when the roads need fixing. I am very pro the arts, but the point they make is that they do not see money in accounting terms: a pound is a pound and they just want it spent on the must-haves before anything else.

Well, this makes sense to me and as much as we are told capital budgets (long term infrastructure or acquisitions) cannot be spent on the revenue budget (day-to-day services and short term infrastructure fixes), this is not strictly true. Conceivably, aside from keeping money in reserves, all money could be spent on fixing the whole place up and public services. The only time it cannot be used is when the budgets have been agreed, where according to the legals, money from the capital budget cannot be used to prop up services. This is why the street lights are off or dimmed in certain places at night while astonishing amounts of money are spent on shopping centres. In essence, once the budget has been agreed, our schools could be crumbling while £10m can be spent on a shopping centre.

The argument is that a successful shopping centre can generate revenue that can be used to pay for services. Not bad in theory if it works, but in practice the risk is high and the rewards fairly low. It was reported Southend was losing £500K after interest payments were taken into account!

How has this lopsided and irresponsible spending been allowed to happen? Who is responsible for prioritising what? All people see is money. They do not see accounting rules or laws, which if it wasn’t too obvious are made up.

At this point, it will be easier if I just said in Essex, at the very least, all this will stop if I am voted in as Mayor of Essex, and will do my best to influence - where legal - councils to do the same.

Time for us all to muck in

A penny saved is worth more than a pound earned. We must get a hold of the money going out and the Confelicity Party has agreed the following:

• Review Executive pay, with a suggested proposal of a 10% reduction including pension payments.

• Encourage voluntary remuneration reviews for staff earning over £50K.

• Reduce pay packages for new council staff once posts become vacant above £50K

• Return councillor roles to voluntary positions, and rescind the pension entitlement.

• I will personally take no salary as the Mayor of Essex as we see this role as a public duty.

• Stop all non-essential capital investments.

• Review the procurement process

As said, the Mayor does not have powers over councils and this would include some of these ideals. However, I raise them here as I would look to influence a much more reasonable and affordable remuneration package that would see people keep their jobs and local government run effectively.

Change

Lastly, I wish to make a quick comment about change.

So often you hear politicians and parties go on about change and how often the main opposition of the party in power centres their campaigns on it.

Obama did it. Blair did it. Heck, Starmer boiled his whole campaign down to using that one singular word!

I have become mightily scared of the changes that are coming our way, much of which will come without a choice and I could well do with the world slowing down. For once, I wouldn't mind a period where we can wake up each day and know what we were going to get!

Instead, technology is speeding forward and politicians are riding the wave without waiting for us to get on board.

It seems it does not matter whether we want to or not - it's happening. Often the government deems it necessary to fine people who do not comply. Digital ID is the best example, but the cashless society is also knocking on the door.

At this time, I believe we need to take a breath. Explain in detail what is happening and why and provide the opportunity to say no. This is the reassurance I think many need at this time - certainly I do.

I am not saying to go backwards, but this constant jumping head-first into the next new technological wonder without the public's knowledge needs to end.

Although I will not make no-change the centrepiece of my Mayoral campaign, I feel it important for voters to know that I am seeking to preserve and conserve the traditions we hold dear, and will ask for permission for any change that would transform lives at a fundamental level. And this, I believe, is consistent with getting our house in order before upsetting the order of things that may or may not make life better for all of us.