Brighton & Hove City Councillors finally set a budget for 2014/15 last night.
After failing to come to an agreement at the annual budget meeting last Thursday, February 27, the Green Party and Labour & Cooperative joined together last night to vote through a council tax increase of 1.99%
After being warned about their legal responibilites to set a budget, councillors voted through a joint amendment from the Green, Conservative and the Labour & Co-operative groups using £306,000 unallocated one-off reserves.
These reserves will fund:
£120,000 transition funding for Able & Willing, the supported service for disabled people allowing the service to continue until September 2015 allowing hopefully for further business to be generated
• £165m to the overall discretionary grants budget for one year whilst alternative funding options are developed
• £15,000 for Pride in addition to the £10,000 to be carried forward from the 2013/14 allocation to support the Parade and Village party
• £6,000 one-off transitional funding for Employment Support within Adult Social Care to shift to new models of working.
It is proposed to use the unallocated £23,000 resources in contingency:
To reverse the £9,000 saving in Children’s Services which will remove the 2% reduction in Community & Voluntary Sector contracts for short breaks for disabled children;
To reverse the £7,000 saving in Children’s Services thereby removing the 2% reduction in Community & Voluntary Sector contracts for Link Plus; and to use the remaining £7,000to reverse part of the £68,000 efficiency savings in the short break residential budget.
Cllr Warren Morgan, leader of Labour and Cooperative, said: “This is a victory for common sense and the right decision for the city. We have set a sensible, inflation-linked council tax increase, avoided a referendum costing £900,000 and a tax freeze costing £800,000. We have not passed the cost of Conservative government cuts on to those who cannot afford it, and most importantly we have kept control of our local services out of the hands of Eric Pickles.
“I’m please we have been able to save funding for respite care breaks for disabled children, funding for community grants and Pride, and support for Able & Willing, the supported employer for people with learning disabilities. There is still £3 million in contingency funds in the Budget to support social care services.”
Cllr Geoffrey Theobald who took Cllr Kitcat to task for remarks made during his speech about the Conservatives, said: “We have been clear and consistent for many months that the Administration should accept the £1.2 million recurrent funding on offer from the Government and deliver a council tax freeze. I am, therefore, very disappointed for the residents of this city that they have been lumbered with this above inflation increase. I am especially disappointed with the Labour Group for not supporting our freeze proposals. Their Leader is constantly banging on about a ‘cost of living crisis’ yet here he is voting to push up people’s council tax bills. There are many Labour councils up and down the country such as Manchester, Sunderland, Newcastle and most Labour London Boroughs who are freezing council tax – why should Brighton & Hove be any different? We have shown, through our proposals, that it is perfectly possible to freeze council tax and still put money in to protect vital services such as short break respite for disabled children. This council tax increase is completely unnecessary.”
Council Leader Jason Kitcat said he agreed to the budget with a heavy heart while denying the settlement had weakened his position: “It was important that the council budget was set. It is important local councillors retain the final say on this. I’m pleased there was cross party agreement on a series of areas which will help keep services going in the year ahead. Everybody had to compromise. It wasn’t the budget we hoped for but at least the city has certainty and the Secretary of State will not be involved.”
All Conservative councillors voted against the budget.
All Labour councillors voted for the budget.
Green councillors who abstained included: Ruth Buckley (Goldsmid), Rob Jarrett (Goldsmid), Stephanie Powell (Queens Park),
Green rebels who voted against the budget included: Ben Duncan (Queens Park), Phelim Mac Cafferty (Brunswick & Adelaide), Alex Philips (Goldsmid) Liz Wakefield (Elm Grove & Hanover).
All other Green councillors voted for the budget.
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