When will there be good news for tax payers?
Bristol City Council put up council tax for residents by the highest amount legally possible even though they received extra funding from…
Bristol City Council put up council tax for residents by the highest amount legally possible even though they received extra funding from the government, which they put in reserves. At the resources scrutiny meeting on February 6, the cabinet member for finance, deputy mayor Craig Cheney, was asked whether he had considered not putting up council tax for the full amount?
The council tax increase of 1.99% was designed to raise £4.4m. Chair Stephen Clarke asked Cllr Cheney whether he had considered not increasing the rate to its highest since the council had received additional and unexpected funding.
Cllr Cheney replied that they “consulted on it” and “we were comfortable that the consultation responses were suitably agreeable to increasing the council tax”.
When pressed by Cllr Clarke who pointed out that there was a mixed response, Cllr Cheney agreed but said “still overwhelmingly there was support for a council tax increase”. He also added that the “council still carried a lot of risk”.
A consultation called ‘Bristol’s Budget’ took place between October and December 2019. Results were collected by 4 December so it was before the election. Neither the council nor residents could have known there would be extra funding after the election.
In the booklet, the question is framed in the following way “a difficult balancing act between Council Tax increases, reductions in the services we provide and how we look to generate income. We are consulting on options for the level of Council Tax increase next year to help cover some of the existing and emerging financial pressures the council faces in delivering services.”
The threat of reducing services is clear if the 2% increase for £4.4m is not implemented.
Unexpectedly, the newly re-elected Conservative government increased funding as a one-off, by £18m. £6m went to cover the hole in the budget according to the scrutiny meeting. £12m was left over. Most went to reserves. Could it not have covered the amount that council tax payers now have to find in the midst of a pandemic/job losses?
Support for council tax increases did vary by the deprivation of the location consulted, as Cllr Clarke pointed out.
Was there overwhelming support?
Overall, 39% of respondents supported the 2% increase but the variation was stark. In the most deprived ward, only one in five people (22%) supported the increase. In the least deprived wards, around half of the respondents showed support. The highest percentage was 54% and this still would be difficult to see as ‘overwhelming support’.
The framing of the consultation also suggested that people were choosing to either reduce services or increase tax. Due to the additional £18m funding, this was no longer true. The £4.4m increase from council tax had already been found and put in reserves.
When looking at support for no council tax increase, the responses are inverse to the support for an increase. There was 37% support for no increase, and high support among the most deprived areas.
Does the council’s acknowledgement of risk mean they are being prudent?
As the budget was voted through this year on 25 February, there was one confidential item that the public and councillors were not allowed to read. BBC Radio Bristol exclusively revealed that the confidential item “was to approve bringing forward next years funding in order to keep the company going” according to BBC’s reporter Pete Simson.
Company reports for Bristol Energy show that the company was given an additional £2.8m by Bristol City Council since 14 February 2020, which was added to the over £35m invested.
One month later, even as Cllr Cheney’s words were still ringing in the air about the council ‘carrying a lot of risk’, councillors voted through their own pay rises as local elections were postponed for a year. Local Democracy Reporter Adam Postans reports: https://www.bristol247.com/news-and-features/news/pay-rise-for-bristol-councillors/
Full transcript of the clip from Resource Scrutiny, 6 February 2020, 4pm
“Yeah, I mean absolutely. We consulted on it.
And I think we were comfortable that the consultation responses were suitably agreeable to increasing the council tax.
I think, I mean, it’s a fair question. I guess it’s always a tough decision to raise council tax.
We continue to fully maintain the council tax reduction scheme to make sure that doesn’t hit the poorest people the hardest.
But we still, we just spent an hour and two hours discussing the various problems that could happen. There’s still a lot of risk around. We’re pretty resilient. We’ve got quite a decent coverage but I don’t think that we could feel safe enough to be able to march on without increasing council tax.
Clarke: I understood the consultation was a bit more mixed depending where you lived.
Cheney: Yeah, absolutely, yeah, yeah, you’re right.
Clarke: Richer people seemed to be willing to pay the increase.
Cheny: Yeah, you’re right. But still overwhelmingly there was support for a council tax increase so I agree and you know we debated it long and hard as you’d imagine with any council tax increase.
The fact remains, like Denise said, you know our base funding is still squeaky. We might be, I think we’re probably in a very good position as a council but they’re still, we’re still carrying a lot of risk.