Plans to cut council tax benefits for Bristol's poorest families scrapped
Proposed changes to the Council Tax Reduction Scheme have been reversed, meaning the local authority will have to look elsewhere for savings
Plans to cut £3million in council tax benefits for Bristol’s poorest families have been scrapped in a major U-turn by the city council.
Deputy mayor Cllr Craig Cheney made the surprise announcement on mayor Marvin Rees’s blog but warned the decision meant the authority would have to find savings from elsewhere to balance the books.
He said that while the results of a public consultation showed most people supported changes to the Council Tax Reduction Scheme (CTRS), “now is not the time” to make them, despite full council approving the Labour administration’s proposals last February.
It is a huge victory for community union ACORN which has campaigned for months to retain the benefits in full, including the threat of legal action and disrupting several City Hall meetings.
A report to Bristol City Council cabinet, which will formally abandon the proposals when it meets on Tuesday, December 5, said 40 per cent of the 6,500 respondents to the consultation wanted to keep the CTRS as it was, with 60 per cent favouring cuts.
The changes would have seen a working-age household’s entitlement reduced by between 10 per cent and 41 per cent a year – £154.83 and £585.36 per year respectively – depending on which of the 10 options was chosen, affecting up to 22,800 families.
Cllr Cheney (Labour, Hillfields) said: “When I was growing up in Bristol, my family was supported by council tax benefit. It was a real lifeline for us.
“Since 2016, our Labour administration has protected our Council Tax Reduction Scheme, which replaced the benefit and is one of the last full schemes in the country.
“This means that up to 100 per cent of a household’s council tax bill can be paid for through the scheme, with 75 per cent of eligible low-income households currently having their bills paid in full.
“We have been proud to provide over £325million of support to families across Bristol since taking office.
“This achievement has been without the support of other parties locally, and despite more than a decade of national government austerity.”
He said that if councillors chose not to have a balanced budget, the Conservative government would do it for them, with the CTRS and frontline services “first on the chopping block”.
Cllr Cheney said: “While the consultation results show that the majority of respondents would support changes to the scheme, now is not the time.
“This is of course welcome news for families, but it does mean that next year’s budget requires another £3million of savings.
“There are no easy decisions left, no efficiencies to make, and no fat to trim.
“More difficult decisions lie ahead. They cannot be ducked.
“It will be incumbent on all councillors to come together and pick from the least-bad options left to balance Bristol’s budget, including an alternative £3million of savings with our Council Tax Reduction Scheme staying in place for 2024/25.”
An ACORN spokesperson said: “23,000 Bristolian families who otherwise would have been pushed ever further towards food banks, overwhelming debt and homelessness can breathe a sigh of relief this Christmas.
“This is the second time Labour has tried to cut it and the second time ACORN has stopped them.
“Ever since we successfully opposed their original attempt in 2017, the mayor and cabinet have falsely declared there to be no alternative to cuts and they have continuously attacked and discredited ACORN for standing up to them.
“After trying to impose vicious cuts on low-income families, this failed mayor now wants us to believe that he has twice ‘protected’ this vital lifeline.
“He clearly holds Bristolians in little regard if he thinks that we’re stupid enough to believe his spin.”
They said councillors from across the political spectrum had opposed the cuts, with Greens being “unstinting in their support” for ACORN’s campaign.
The spokesperson said more than 1,000 ACORN members took action and that a council tax strike was planned to get Mr Rees to back down.
They said: “It’s sad and very disappointing that for the second time in six years the mayor, who champions the idea of working with communities, has thrown away the opportunity to work with community organisations of low-income people.
“This has been shown in the shambolic and disrespectful handling of the Barton House crisis and his repeated refusals to meet with us to discuss the impacts of cutting the council tax benefit.”
They said the U-turn proved once again that ACORN was the “last line of defence for ordinary people”
“The union is the only option for communities abandoned and betrayed by politicians who sell us out and care only for their own interests,” the spokesperson said.
“This shows the power of ordinary people standing together and looking after each other.
“When we’re united there’s nothing we can’t win.”
The current CTRS costs £43.4million – 8.9 per cent of the council’s annual revenue budget, of which working-age households receive £30million of support while pensioners – whose entitlement is protected by national rules – get £13.4million.
The cabinet report said that without the cuts, the cost for next year would be between £43.7million to £46.8million.
It said: “If the Council Tax Reduction Scheme remains unchanged for 2024/25, this would mean further financial pressures on the council’s finances and those of the preceptors’ budgets police and fire authorities, with other savings and efficiencies needed to enable the council to set a legally balanced budget for the next financial year.”
The changes would have come into effect from April.