Even in the worst of times, democracy has a habit of bursting out. With no effective opposition in England and the government 16 points ahead, a primal force against one-party rule usually erupts somewhere.
But Surrey is surely an unlikely spot for revolt against Theresa May’s continuity austerity. In this most Conservative county, all 11 MPs are Tory, including the chancellor Philip Hammond, Jeremy Hunt, Chris Grayling and Michael Gove.
But the leader of Surrey county council has had enough. He is rebelling against the savagery of local authority cuts and its effect on social care and child protection. After cuts of £170m since 2010, he says cutting any more would do serious harm to vulnerable people. He will raise council tax by 15% (£190 a year on a band D home) which, under David Cameron’s unjust law, requires a referendum – and that makes Surrey the standard bearer for saving local services.
It took the remarkable character of David Hodge, the council leader, to take this stand, a man with significant clout as leader of the Conservative group in the Local Government Association. But his moral authority is what sets him head and shoulders above weak LGA leadership of recent years. “I believe we have a duty to look after people,” he told me. “We cut £450m already, we squeezed every efficiency and we can do no more. I am sick and tired of politicians not telling the truth. Surrey people have the right to know and I’m not going to lie.”
Surrey is rich but with a low government grant. Hodge says he has the most children and adults with learning disabilities in the country due to a proximate ring of specialist hospitals: some patients cost £45,000 a year, all of them are living longer. He took about 860 cases from the NHS in 2011 – but was cheated when an accompanying grant was abruptly cut. “Surrey is a magnet for these families, as our services are good. What are we to do?”
Before the referendum to be held on May local election day, he will spell out the options with and without the extra £60m the extra council tax would raise. “We have to take an axe to services unless people vote for this. It’s very painful, as Surrey people already pay a fair whack, but we will lay out the choices honestly.” He knows council tax is not the fair way to raise funds: “But my hands are tied, with nothing else I can do. The time has come for council leaders to tell people what’s happening.”
I have known and listened to Hodge over recent years, as his growling complaints about cuts have built up year by year. I’ve heard his impassioned support for the hard work of his social carers and his social workers under increasing stress, his anxieties about children at risk, about old and disabled people needing help. He says: “I wish politicians and journalists who scapegoat social workers when something goes wrong would just come and spend time here to see their work. I can’t praise them enough.”
His story is key to his character: now in his late 60s, he was brought up in a Dublin orphanage, never went to school, and was taught by one master for 90 orphans until he left at 14. He was in the army for 22 years, and saw active service in Borneo and Northern Ireland. His wife died, so he brought up his three sons alone. One way or another he has a natural empathy with people who struggle.
Why is he a Tory, I have asked him before. Those are deep cultural and tribal mysteries. But ask him about his local Tory MPs and he bursts with indignation at the mountain of weekly letters they send him asking for special favours for constituents, for school places, help with care, housing and everything else.
“I have to answer them all within 10 days at great cost, yet they know they have cut our money. They know I need 11,000 more school places by 2020, with no money.” And no, he doesn’t want grammar schools or academies. “What matters is not the name-plate on the school door, it’s teachers extending the minds of every child.” He complains: “Michael Gove is not prepared to help and he’s not backing our 15% rise.”
May, asked on the Andrew Marr show if she supported Hodge, flannelled about extra money she is letting councils raise (not even enough for rises in the minimum wage and national insurance). Housing minister Gavin Barwell fed the Sunday Politics the official line: “I don’t think it’s justified … It’s not all about the money, it needs reform.” Hodge bridles: what “reform”, after his £450m efficiency savings and merged services with other councils?
Lest anyone doubts Surrey’s figures through the thickets of council funding formulas, the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (Cipfa) came to verify them. “We confirm that due to severe problems in social care, Surrey’s figures are exactly as their finance officers say,” says Rob Whiteman, head of Cipfa. Social care costs are rising by £24m a year. Whiteman adds: “David Hodge deserves huge thanks from all local government for his bravery in telling the truth about council finances.”
No surprise that Hodge has been bullied by government. Last week Department for Communities and Local Government permanent secretary Melanie Dawes gave evidence to the Commons disputing Cipfa’s evidence that councils are “close to the brink” and “insolvency is looming for some”. According to her: “Councils are finding they can manage with these budgets.”
Though Hodge’s 15% is backed by virtually all his 57 councillors, the only Surrey MP on his side is Crispin Blunt who tells me he will urge constituents to back yes in the referendum. He sees non-statutory services going, “youth services, libraries, day centres under the cosh. This needs a grownup conversation with the voters.” He, like Hodge, protests at misleading nit-picking by local press and other critics. Complaining about councillors’ lunch allowances, he says, is piffling compared with the financial gap.
Will the very conservative voters of Surrey change the habit of lifetime and vote for (a little) higher tax and more spending? Hodge fervently trusts they will, once given the facts. He says: “If we lose, at least we can walk out with our integrity intact and our heads held high, knowing we did all we could to improve the lives of Surrey citizens.”
Hodge may start an epidemic of truth-telling by Tory councils. As I write, news breaks that leaders of Isle of Wight council have resigned, cuts making their position “untenable” and “intolerable” where “anyone with even a modicum of compassion and concern” will find caring for people “pretty much impossible”. Like funding, compassion and concern seem in short supply.