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Now more than ever Labour needs a leader who will defend the role of local government in delivering properly funded public services in the face of ideological cuts. Huge in-year cuts imposed by the coalition will have an impact in every ward – from youth services and children's play areas to home helps. The Tory-Lib Dem government talks about a big society, but that's usually nothing more than a cover for cuts – a handful of parents in 16 communities get a new ‘free school', while almost a million see their child's promised new building cancelled. So Labour needs strong leadership now to make the case that there is an alternative to the austerity programme of this coalition. That's what I've been doing throughout this leadership contest and in my speech at Bloomberg which exposed the economic flaws in David Cameron and George Osborne's plans which will undermine jobs and growth and risk a double-risk recession. I also set out how Labour must be the consensus-changers and challenge the misguided view that cutting the deficit at all costs is the most urgent priority in Britain or that we can somehow cut our way to recovery, when our economy is still fragile and there are growing worries about the weaknesses of the US economy too. Ken Livingstone described it as the most significant speech by a Labour politician since the election and it has been praised by top economists like David Blanchflower and the respected Financial Times commentator Martin Wolf. The economy will be the defining issue of the next few years. If Labour is to win the next election we have to win this argument with David Cameron, George Osborne and Nick Clegg. And Labour must set out a credible and radical alternative that puts jobs and growth first – because having more people in work and paying taxes is the best way to get the deficit down over time. So last week I set out a costed plan for a £6bn boost to build 100,000 new affordable homes – to tackle the housing shortage and at the same time create hundreds of thousands of jobs and boost growth. For every pound spent on house building an estimated £1.40 in gross output is generated across the economy. Every two homes built create an estimated three full time jobs plus up to four times that number in the supply chain. That is why Kevin Rudd's fiscal stimulus in Australia focused on public sector construction, and succeeded in averting a recession. And I also called for a new ‘right to a job' matched with a responsibility to take it up, by creating 200,000 jobs and work placements to stop anyone becoming long term unemployed and being abandoned to a life on the dole. Local councillors will be at the frontline as the coalition repeats the economic mistakes of the 1930s and 1980s with deflationary cuts and an ideological assault on our public services and welfare state. That's why as leader I would work in partnership with local government to make the case that there is an economically credible alternative based on a clear plan to boost jobs and growth, build more affordable homes and protect our vital services. Ed Balls MP is shadow children and education secretary

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WHITEHALL

What we want from our public services

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