Ealing Lib Dems expose £90m of lost funding from developers

Ealing Lib Dems say that the lost income could have been used for many services including a council tax freeze for residents.

The Liberal Democrat Opposition have been hard at work challenging the Ealing Labour led administration on why they are the last council in London to charge development companies Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL).

CIL was introduced in 2010 by the government, when Ealing Labour took control 15 years ago. CIL is a tool which enables council to charge development companies a fee specifically for infrastructure spending. Yet Ealing Labour have only just introduced this levy in 2025! Yes, that is 15 years after most other councils began charging this helpful fee. That is as long as Ealing Labour have been in power in Ealing!

Given that Ealing borough has had significant amounts of buildings across the borough over the last decade and a half, Lib Dems estimate that Ealing Labour has forgone £90m in funding which it could have achieved from the development industry. This could have been used for many different things to benefit residents.

Instead of Ealing Labour whingeing about how little money they have perhaps they should spend more time focusing on how they spend the money they have!

To put this in context for scale, the Council receives almost £190m from Council Tax payments in a single year (based on 2024/25) and £90m income lost by Ealing Labour shows their incompetence and wastefulness!

The proportion of budgets spent on universal services for all council tax payers such as street cleaning, rubbish collection and fly tipping for example have reduced from 43% of budgets in 2021/22 to 25% in 2024/25, a substantial reduction of about a third of spend on these services in a four-year period. Most budgets are spent on statutory services such as Adult and Children Services as well as Housing.

The lost £90m could have been spent on:

• Funding Adults Social Care & Public Health or Children’s Services for a year (statutory services)
• Keeping Council tax static (no increase of 5%) to assist all residents across the borough
• Purchasing additional units for social housing – as house building has paused across some sites in the borough

Liberal Democrat Councillor Gary Busuttil, Opposition Spokesperson on Finance and Council Honesty said: “This is another example of Ealing Labour blaming everyone except themselves. Through their negligence Ealing Labour have lost £90m of funding which could have been used on freezing council tax, funding universal services or Adult Social Care or Children’s Services.”

Gary Busuttil added: “I am shocked and disappointed that Ealing Labour does not seem to be learning any lessons on managing budgets and finances, despite being in power for 15 years. Instead, they continue to blame everyone except themselves. In the Lib Dem Budget this year we saved £1m, of which half was a reduction in reliance on agency and temporary staff. This pales into insignificance when compared with the neglect and poor judgement and decision making capabilities of Ealing Labour in terms of their failure to implement the CIL resulting in lost funds of £90m which could have been used to freeze council tax, address universal services or fund statutory services such as Adult or Children’s Services. They are unable to prioritise and manage budgets for all the residents of the borough or to effectively deliver value or change for residents.”