Council tax to go up five per cent?
STOCKPORT residents could see their council tax rise by almost five per cent for the second year running as town hall bosses battle to balance the books in the face of government cuts.
The council’s latest budget proposals also include cuts to a number of services – including savings of more than £1.6m from children’s services and the closure of the Apprenticeships Store.
In April this year an increase of 4.99 per cent was implemented, meaning that people living in Stockport pay more council tax than anywhere else in Greater Manchester, and council chiefs are proposing an increase of the same amount in April next year as they attempt to make savings of £4.15m.
For a band D property this represents a rise of £1.46 a week, or £75.93 a year.
The council will have to save another £13.85m in 2018/19 and further savings of £43m by 2022/23.
Council leader Alex Ganotis says they are aware that many families are struggling, but they feel ‘there are no alternatives and insufficient room for manoeuvre’ after seven years of austerity, which have seen Stockport make savings of over £100m so far.
“Because of the cuts in funding from the government, if people want the same services that the council provide to continue, they will have to pay more for them,” he said.
Of the 4.99pc rise, 3pc will go towards funding adult social care, which is struggling under the pressure of increased costs and reduced resources.
However, councillor Ganotis has stressed that the rise is still a proposal and the town hall is consulting with residents on the plans before taking a final decision.
“We are not legally obliged to reveal the council tax rise until the end of the financial year, but we want to be very open and honest with people and get their views,” he added.
Bosses are additionally proposing reductions in ‘a few services,’ including children and young people’s services, where savings of £1,626,000 have been identified.
The budget report that was taken to a cabinet meeting last week states: “As we proceed with further budget reductions, the difficulty to achieve the related financial savings cannot be underestimated and there will be an impact on our most important residents – young people.”
The council is ‘clearly seeing an increase in the number of vulnerable children that need support and sometimes protection,’ with homelessness, domestic violence, child sexual exploitation and mental health issues all on the rise – and Coun Ganotis says the only way to protect the most vulnerable is to make savings elsewhere in the service.
He said: “If children need to be looked after we will look after them, but that means we need to shift the resources around. The bottom line is we need to protect services for looked-after children.”
Among the proposals put forward are the closure of the Apprenticeships Store; the loss of two staff members from the Youth Offending Service; reducing the number of School Age Plus workers; the ‘redesign and restructure’ of children’s centres and early years services and reductions in free school transport.
Coun Ganotis added: “We would like to encourage residents to get involved and have their say on these proposed changes. We are committed to working with residents to ensure we do what is right for our borough.
“Taking seriously feedback provided on our proposals is part of this.”
For more information and to give your views visit stockport/gov.uk/haveyoursay.