Brighton and Hove: Council tax to increase
Labour has passed the budget for Brighton and Hove City Council
Council tax in Brighton and Hove will increase by 4.99 per cent after Labour councillors voted through an unamended budget.
Greens, Conservatives and Brighton and Hove Independents tried to make changes to adjust proposed service cuts and spend an unallocated £500,000.
However, the Labour led authority could push through its agenda without input from the opposition parties.
Labour councillor Jacob Taylor, the party’s finance lead, presented the £1.1 billion gross budget which includes £211 million in capital spending.
Due to increasing costs and demands the council had to make £30 million in cuts and savings.
'I am sorry we are in this position'
Councillor Taylor laid out the reasons behind cuts and savings. He said:
“This is the hardest budget that this local authority has ever had to face – and I’ll be honest with members, the hardest thing I’ve ever had to undertake professionally in my life.
“We take zero pleasure in this Labour administration having to find savings – quite the opposite. We obviously want to be expanding and developing local government in this city.
“And I want to directly address our brilliant staff at the council. I am sorry we are in this position. I am sorry that some staff members are facing uncertainty about their jobs.
“We have spent months and months developing and refining these proposals, to try to protect what matters to residents. And to a large extent, we have done that.”
Councillor Taylor concluded by announcing how an unallocated £307,000 and a forecast underspend would be used to create a £614,000 Brighton and Hove Fairness Fund, to support those most in need with food vouchers, discretionary payments, and support for foodbanks.
Labour council leader Bella Sankey described setting the budget with £30 million of cuts as a “gut-wrenching process” that followed a £100 “real terms” cut in funding for Brighton and Hove.
Leader of the opposition, Green group convenor councillor Steve Davis said he had written a speech outlining the case for the Green amendments which would protect the vulnerable in society from the worst of the cuts.
Councillor Davis expressed his disappointment that the day before the meeting, the opposition was told none of their amendments would be accepted without the administration hearing the debate.
The approved budget sees a 4.99 per cent increase in council tax including two per cent which is ring-fenced towards adult social care, which forms the bulk of the £256 million general fund element of the council budget.