Council tax rise meeting
Sunderland councillors will be asked to approve plans for a 5% council tax increase today.
A meeting at Sunderland Civic Centre will be asked to rubber stamp the authority’s budget for the next financial year.
The proposal for a rise was outlined at a cabinet meeting in January, but must be ratified by a full council meeting this afternoon.
The figure includes a 2% adult social care precept suggested by the Government, which is anticipated to raise £1.79million to help support older and vulnerable people in care homes and more than 4,000 people in their own homes.
If approved, the majority of households, who are in a Band A property, will see an increase of 83p a week. For a Band D property it is £1.24p a week.
This would the third time council tax has increased in Sunderland since 2010.
Conservative councillors unveiled their response to the budget proposals last month. Now the council’s three Liberal Democrat councillors have called for cuts to councillor’s expenses and allowances to boost frontline spending. Lib Dem leader Coun Niall Hodson said: “The proposed savings will allow us to reinvest money where it is needed.
“We propose to make waste-collection easier for those who find it harder to pay for services.”
Tory group leader Coun Robert Oliver said: “Unlike Sunderland Conservatives, the Liberal Democrat councillors on Wearside are not offering the residents of the city a smaller rise in the council tax: 3% proposed by the Conservative group instead of 5% for both Labour and Liberal Democrat.”
Coun Mel Speding, the council’s Cabinet Secretary, said: “It’s very easy for three Liberal Democrats to come up with back of a fag packet calculations.
“Councils can no longer afford to offer front-line services as they once did because of austerity.”