(Image: Supplied)
Amanda Hopgood argues Durham residents deserve facts, not "spin", as she challenges Reform UK's account of council tax, investment and progress at County Hall.
When families worry about bills, potholes and homes, they need straight answers from the people running the council.
Andrew Husband’s Northern Echo article offers a misleading account.
It presents a council tax choice as an order from government, takes credit for investment developed before Reform took office, and makes promises sound like results.
The truth matters because residents cannot judge progress or hold leaders to account when the record is blurred.
Council tax is a local decision
Husband says councils are “forced” to raise council tax by 4.99 per cent.
That is misleading.
The Government assumes councils use their full tax raising flexibility when it calculates funding.
That puts real pressure on council budgets and deserves criticism.
But it does not compel a 4.99 per cent rise.
That figure is the usual limit before a local referendum is required.
Reform’s Durham administration set a 1.99 per cent rise for 2026/27.
Telling households that the higher rise is forced shifts responsibility away from the people who decide their bills.
NETPark did not begin with Reform
Husband holds up the “£100 million NETPark expansion” as proof that Reform has made County Durham “open for business”.
The dates tell a different story.
During the joint administration I led, the council began a £62 million Phase 3 scheme.
By November 2024, it had invested £48 million and committed a further £24 million, subject to funding.
Filtronic was announced as the first tenant in September 2024.
The North East Combined Authority approved another £11.3 million that November.
Businesses, council staff and regional partners built that momentum.
Reform may continue the project, but implying it created that success takes credit from the people who actually delivered it.
A road warranty is not a road survey
Husband says roads are improving because mastic asphalt pothole repairs come with a warranty.
A lasting repair is welcome.
A warranty on a patch does not establish the condition of roads across County Durham.
Residents still living with damaged routes deserve comparable figures on road condition, repairs and the backlog.
Presenting a guarantee as proof of countywide improvement risks dismissing what people can see outside their own doors.
Promises need proof
Buying buildings for supported living could reduce dependence on costly providers.
Lobbying for kinship families could help children.
Husband offers both as evidence that Reform is fixing the council.
Yet residents need to see the buildings’ purchase and running costs against the contracts they replace, and the extra support families actually receive.
Without those tests, an announcement is being sold as an outcome.
People who rely on care deserve better than that.
Article 4 is no blanket ban
Husband says Reform “introduced Article 4” to prevent HMOs appearing unexpectedly next door.
Article 4 directions already covered parts of County Durham before Reform took office.
Its wider direction extends a planning control, but does not ban HMOs.
It means certain conversions need planning permission and can still be approved.
That distinction matters to streets and villages worried about the concentration of shared housing.
Overstating the protection gives residents false reassurance and damages trust when applications proceed.
Housing needs facts rather than fear
The article says the Labour Government is buying County Durham homes for “illegal immigrants”.
In fact, Mears, a private Home Office contractor, sources asylum accommodation.
After a pause in June 2025, the Home Office asked it to resume sourcing in August 2026 because it said 100 to 150 additional bed spaces were needed.
It said Durham’s agreed dispersal allocation had not increased.
The pressure on local housing is real.
Imprecise claims about who buys homes and labelling people awaiting asylum decisions as though their cases are settled stir anxiety between neighbours while distracting from the need for more decent homes and careful management of placements.
I led this council from 2021 to 2025 in a joint administration and have proudly served as a county councillor for over 18 years.
Our joint administration did not get everything right, but it secured public investment in NETPark’s next phase and Filtronic as its first tenant.
I will not let that work be erased, nor let today’s administration avoid responsibility for its own decisions.
County Durham can attract good jobs and improve everyday services.
Liberal Democrats will keep pressing for honest budgets, measurable repairs and housing rules that people can understand.
Communities are stronger when their leaders tell them the truth.