Bristol City Council reveals budget proposals for 2022/23
There are plans to raise council tax and increase parking charges to make up a £19.5 million funding shortfall
Bristol's Mayor has unveiled his budget plans for the new year, including changes to residential parking charges and an increase in council tax.
In a briefing with Bristol's journalists on Monday (January 10), Marvin Rees revealed the City Council has a funding shortfall of £19.5 million to make up, largely because of coronavirus.
Plans for how he will balance the books include raising parking charges and scrapping 30-minute free stays in resident's parking zones, raising council tax by 3 percent and selling off unnecessary council buildings.
Other measures being suggested include increasing rent for council tenants by one percent above inflation and cutting managerial jobs within the local authority, but frontline services will not be cut.
Speaking during the briefing, Mr Rees highlighted three points that he said have exacerbated the council's financial problems, namely 12 years of austerity and "disinvestment in local government", the nature of the financial relationship with central government, which he called "out of date" and then the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
"Increased demand on services because of covid, lost revenues, inflation in our costs, has really brought huge challenge to us," he said.
"A house building budget"
Summarising, Mr Rees declared his plans "a house building budget", saying he hopes to better serve the level of demand for homes in Bristol.
"Within the general fund there's a £250 million commitment to build homes over three years," he said.
Two thousand and 69 additional new council homes will also be built under the plans over the next seven years, while £80 million would be spent on improving the energy efficiency of the council's existing homes.
"Over 30 years its £1.8 billion to council house building, which we think at this moment is probably the biggest investment package in council house building in the country," he said.
"We have said repeatedly over the years, that delivering affordable homes is one of the single most significant policy tools that we have available to us."
Environmentalism
On top of the efficiency plans for homes, £12 million would be set aside to decarbonise the council's own estate.
The council, Mr Rees says, has been examining all the buildings it owns, some of which Mr Rees admitted the council hierarchy had "lost track of", to try and establish how money can be saved there.
"That commitment to decarbonising our stock remains strong," he said, although a council document shared with us after the briefing states another £450 million will be needed to reach net zero, which the council will look to receive from central government.
Other schemes
Elsewhere in the proposals its said £1 million could be made through new bus shelter advertisements, while £323,000 could be saved through reduced legal costs.
On the proposed changes to parking charges, it's thought that could make an additional £2.3 million for the council, while there are plans to install more energy efficient street lights.
£5.5 million could be saved, it's said, through reviewing all management roles at the council, £3.5 million could be saved by getting rid of unnecessary council buildings.
Before the proposals in the budget can be enacted it must be approved by full council, which could potentially prove problematic for Mr Rees as Labour do not hold a majority.
Asked if he was confident his budget would receive support from other parties, the Mayor said behind closed doors there is "a recognition of the scale of the challenge", but he could not say whether it would "survive the theatre" of full council.
"There is a by-election coming up and there is a referendum on the mayoral model," he said.
“For some councillors the temptation to indulge in some theatre and some chaos and show the system seizing up might be too much, and that would be unfortunate because the stakes are high."
The budget proposals will be debated by full council on February 15.