Dilemma over services as authority eyes cuts
COUNCIL tax in Halton will rise by less than the maximum allowed under the Government rules from April to spare residents the extra ‘financial burden’ imposed by budget cuts.
At a Full Council meeting members backed a rise of 2%, lower than the 2.99% permitted by Whitehall.
The increase will be accompanied by a 3% levy on council tax for the social care precept to raise an extra £1.3m of income, which is cumulative with the 2% increase totalling a 5% hike in bills.
However, this is not including police, fire and parish precepts, which are also rising.
The total overall increase for a standard Band D property in Halton is 5.2% or an extra £79.80 a year or £1.26 a week, with the total annual bill hitting £1,629.80, not including discounts such as 25% for single occupancy.
For Band A properties the rise equates to £43.75 a year or 84p per week, and for Band B an annual rise of £51.02 or 98p per week.
Most Halton residents live in Bands A and B.
Cllr Mike Wharton, Halton Council’s deputy leader and portfolio holder for resources, spoke at the meeting last Wednesday to outline the ‘dilemma’ facing the local authority of whether it can continue to provide its existing services, all of which he said are ‘highly valued and many are essential to the wellbeing of our residents’.
He accused the Government of having left councillors with ‘little choice’ but to consider things ‘we would not have wanted to consider’.
The budget for 2018-19 is being slashed by £2.7m or 6%, with a further 14% cut remaining by 2022.
Cllr Wharton said £10m of savings had already been found in 2017-18, bringing the total annual reduction in Government grant funding to a cut of £59m a year when comparing 2010-11 with 201819, or £466 per person.
He said the 100% business rates retention scheme had made it more difficult to compare local authorities but said ‘spending power’ figures comparing areas are published, combining grant, ● business rates and council funding.
The resources chief said this showed a total £41m cut for Halton since 2010 or 29%, greater than the English average reduction of 20%, equating to a reduction of £326 per head of population for Halton compared to the English average of £210.
While Halton’s spending power had diminished by 29%, in Prime Minister Theresa May’s constituency of Windsor And Maidenhead it had fallen by 10% or £67 per head over the same period.
Chancellor Phillip Hammond’s constituency of Surrey had incurred a reduction of 6% or £45 per head.
Mr Wharton welcomed a £399,000 one-off adult social care support grant from the Government for ● 2018-19 but said it ‘won’t go far towards meeting’ a funding shortfall he said had been partly caused by national policy. He said the council had committed to providing an extra £3m for children’s social care, which he said was in a ‘crisis’ that ministers had ‘failed to recognise’.
Commenting on the extra 5% council tax most residents will pay, he said: “Whilst clearly not enough, it will at least help us to maintain those essential services for the most vulnerable people within our community.
“However, we do recognise the additional burden this will place upon our residents, when in reality this funding should all be provided nationally by the Government.
“Despite lobbying by individual councils and the various local government associations,
“Government has failed to recognise the national crisis which also now exists within the funding of children’s social care.
“As we know only too well in Halton, the increasing demand for services coupled with the increasing complexity of cases is causing costs to spiral upwards.
“But Government has decided to ignore this and haven’t provided any additional funding within the grant settlement.
“We as a council cannot however take such a ruthless approach as the Government.
“Therefore, within the budget before you we have included an additional £3m of funding for children’s social care, to help address this issue.
“You will recall a few weeks ago that Conservative-led Northamptonshire County Council announced it had severe financial problems and had issued a Section 114 notice, which imposed spending controls on all areas except safeguarding vulnerable people and statutory services.
“If only Northamptonshire had the same friends in Government as their Conservative colleagues in Surrey, they might have been bailed out by Government in the same way.
“However, what’s happened to Northamptonshire, a Conservative-led council, is indicative of how this Government views local government and the real worry is which council will be next.
“As you know Halton has a very low tax base with 68% of our properties in bands A and B. Our council tax is currently the fourth lowest in the North West. If we were ‘not’ to have a general increase in council tax, we would have to find a further £900,000 of budget savings and our tax base would be eroded even further.”
He added: “I must thank the trade unions for their pragmatic approach to dealing with these difficult circumstances.
“I must also pay tribute to the staff who despite the great uncertainty, have continued to deliver excellent, high quality services to the public.
“I would like to thank the leader, colleagues on the budget working group and all members for their hard work over the past year.
“Unfortunately, there is more hard work to come and even more difficult decisions to make, so I look forward to your help.”