Tories hail ‘amazing’ budget for Hillingdon
Council tax freeze ‘is not for all’ claims Labour
C O N S E R VAT I V E - L E D Hillingdon Council say they’ve delivered a “remarkable and amazing” budget for the next financial year, despite government cuts.
The council have announced money is in the pot for Hayes town centre improvements, a future theatre in Uxbridge, a museum and CCTV to enforce parking outside schools.
Council tax for residents in the borough has been frozen for the eighth year in a row, and over 65s who have benefited from the freeze for 10 years, will see this perk continued until 2019 at the earliest.
The budget was set after a unanimous vote by all members on Thursday, February 25.
Cllr Ray
Puddifoot,
The Uxbridge Gazette Series Leader of the Council, said: “Whilst those around us have closed down facilities, cut services and charged their residents more for basic services – in Hillingdon we have not done so – in fact, in most cases we have done the reverse – building new facilities and improving services and at the same time building up financial reserves to help with the challenges that lay ahead of us.
“So, given that we already do all of that and with a general fund savings target of £13.3 million for 2016/17, what does next year look like for Hillingdon? Frankly it looks amazing.”
Cllr Puddifoot told the budget meeting that Hillingdon had seen a reduction in central government funding of £73million since 2010/11 but said there are no “planned service cuts” or facility closures.
But the Labour opposition say there’s “nothing particularly remarkable” about the Tory budget as council tax was one of the highest in London before the freeze. Peter Curling, a Labour Townfield ward councillor said: “At the January Council meeting, Hillingdon’s Conservative administration pushed through a change to the Council Tax Reduction scheme (previously called Council Tax Benefit) which will mean that the least well off and most vulnerable families in Hillingdon, will see an increase of up to 25%.
“So when the Leader of the council claims to be freezing the Council Tax for everyone, that’s not exactly the reality of the situation.
“As usual the Tories are making those that can least afford it pay more, so that everyone else doesn’t have to.”
The opposition asked that any rise to councillors’ allowances should be given to the Mayor’s charity, but despite rejection by the Conservatives, the Labour group vow to donate their rise allowances for the year.
Cllr Puddifoot said Hillingdon has nearly £50million in reserves and balances and a strong Housing Revenue Capital Account (HRA).
He added: “It takes strong financial management to achieve what we have in both the General Funds and the HRA and we do that all day, every day. Our programme of business improvement delivery, service transformation and zero based budgeting have set us apart from other councils.”