Economic growth will remain at the heart of East Sussex priorities, pledged the ruling Conservatives on the county council this week. They dismissed a call from a Green Party member to abandon it, saying such a move would be “one of the most foolish things anyone could suggest”.
Tuesday’s East Sussex County full council displayed a rare moment of bi-partisan agreement between Conservative and Lib Dem Councillors on the authority.
During an address to the chamber, as it debated the Cabinet Report, Green co-leader, Councillor Georgia Taylor, said: “One of the current council administration’s objectives is economic growth, and we [The Green Party] do not think this is a useful objective.”
Replying, Conservative Carl Maynard, the Lead Member for Adult Social Care and Health, said it was “absolutely vital in this county, where we have significant areas of deprivation (not just within specific towns but also in the travel-to-work areas), that we make sure that people have quality jobs, we make sure that they have access to good education, and driving economic growth is absolutely fundamental to making sure that the residents of East Sussex have good health, good opportunities, and enjoy a good life "
Cllr Maynard went on to heavily criticise the Green Party’s idea, saying: "The idea that you don't promote economic growth is absolutely bizarre. What Cllr Taylor has just exposed is a key weakness in Green Party policy, whereby one policy overarches everything else at the expense of other areas.”
Councillor Maynard was joined by other councillors including Lib Dem members Carolyn Lambert and Kathryn Field in rejecting the Green Party’s anti-growth local agenda.
Cllr Maynard said he was astonished to hear the Green councillor suggesting not making economic growth a priority. “That is an absolutely astonishing statement. Ensuring economic growth, especially where you have deep-seated generational, cyclical deprivation. By focussing on economic growth, you will see a change in health inequalities, you will see increased educational achievement, you will see communities lifted.”
Concluding, Cllr Maynard said: “To take economic growth out, as one of the aspirations of this authority, would be one of the most foolish things that anybody could suggest ...and it will continue to form a key part of what we do in this county; working with partners to make sure, especially in those areas where there is significant deprivation, that economic growth is an absolute byword for this authority."
After the meeting, Councillor Gerard Fox, Chair of the East Sussex Pension Fund, observed:” This was a surreal moment in my six years as a member, watching Councillor Taylor unpack a vision of jobs, wealth, health and prosperity for all where growth was not the driver but an incidental and somewhat unwelcome by-product. Georgia sits on my pension committee. Without economic growth there would be no return from which to pay the pensions of our 82,000 members.”
Councillor Fox added: “The problem is that the Green Party subordinate all other priorities to the achievement of their ideological goals which for a substantial number means de-growth. They operate from the naïve premise that they can determine what is socially desirable and direct what growth they approve of accordingly. At best it is fanciful, at worst it is dangerously at odds with reality, and it certainly gets in the way of pursuing sensible effective policies on the environment.”
