Our key investments

Many people are under strain, paying higher prices for basics like food and energy bills than they were a year ago – plus other concerns including inflation, interest rate rises, and the continued uncertainty and devastation wreaked by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The council has responded by boosting financial support to protect the vulnerable and those who need it most, as well as pressing ahead with tackling the issues that matter most to local people. The council continues to invest in an ambitious new-build council housing programme to create hundreds of new, decent homes in the borough, as well as investing in both young people’s services and measures to keep women and girls safe from abuse. The council will also focus its efforts on tackling the climate crisis by working with residents and businesses to create a net zero-carbon borough by the end of the decade.

The budget for 2022/23 includes:

• Putting an extra £676,000 into the Council Tax Support Scheme to further reduce the council tax bills of around 19,000 low-income working age households;

• Quadrupling the size of the childcare bursary scheme to £160,000, enabling up to 300 more parents to afford to get back into work or training;

• Investing an extra £1 million per year through the council’s Fairer Together programme to work with partners and voluntary organisations to provide 1-2-1 support and community activities to vulnerable residents;

• Continuing the new-build council housing programme, with work starting on another 228 homes by the end of 2022; funding to start the redevelopment of the Finsbury Leisure Centre site to create more than 100 genuinely affordable homes, with new leisure and medical facilities; and the proposed purchase and redevelopment of the former Holloway Police Station site to create more genuinely affordable homes;

• This financial year (2021/22) the council is forecasting to spend £7.3 million on a host of projects to support its Vision 2030 strategy to become a net-zero carbon borough by the end of the decade – and in 2022/23 it plans to spend much more. The council will also plant more than 650 new trees next year, and spend £15 million over three years on further electrifying its vehicle fleet and the supporting infrastructure – part of a £39 million, 10-year investment;

• Committing an extra £500,000 to a new and improved youth offer to help ensure Islington’s young people have the best start in life;

• Pressing ahead with a £2 million programme to become national leaders in tackling all forms of violence and abuse against women and girls (VAWG).

Demand for the council’s services has risen sharply due to the Covid-19 pandemic and all its consequences for residents and businesses, but Central Government funding has failed to keep pace. This year the council will have to make savings of £6.7 million to balance the books – on top of 11 years of Central Government austerity and funding cuts, which has forced the council to make budget savings of £281 million.

Despite these cuts, the council continues to invest in innovation and protecting the services local people value and rely on, including protecting free school meals for every primary school pupil, keeping its libraries open, maintaining weekly recycling and rubbish collections and a regular street sweeping programme. The council continues to provide employment support and has exceeded its target of helping 4,000 residents into jobs over four years. It has also distributed more than £126 million in business support grants to more than 22,000 businesses in the borough.