St Helens council tax rise confirmed

Councillors approved Labour’s budget at full council on Wednesday night as the authority looks to close a £10 million budget gap forecast for 2020-21.

Within the budget were proposals to increase council tax by 1.99 per cent and to increase the social care precept by 2 per cent – a 3.99 per cent rise in total.

Pressures of adult social care and children’s services continues to grow, with 71 per cent of the council’s budget goes directly to these vital services.

The budget was backed by the Liberal Democrats and The Independents, while Conservative councillors abstained.

Green Party councillor David O’Keefe also abstained The debate got particularly heated after Tory leader Allan Jones was scolded by Labour’s Jeanie Bell, cabinet member for community safety, on what an effective opposition councillor should do.

This was after Cllr Jones told the Local Democracy Reporting Service earlier in the day that the Conservative group had not come up with an alternative budget because there was “no point” as it would be rejected by Labour.

Independents James Tasker said his group were stuck between a “rock and a hard place” as they did not want to raise council tax but needed to ensure the most vulnerable were protected.

Cllr O’Keefe, ward member for Bold, said he disagreed with some of the elements of the capital budget but could not oppose raising council tax based on the reasons discussed in the debate.

The 3.99 per cent increase will bring in an extra £3 million for the council, which it says will help make sure its budget is “robust and balanced”.

Of that total, £1.5 million will go directly to adult social care with the vast majority of the rest also going to protect the borough’s most vulnerable people.

The budget, including the proposed 3.99 per cent council tax rise, was approved following a named vote.

In a statement given outside of the meeting, Cllr Martin Bond, cabinet member for finance, said: “This year has been the most challenging for local authority finance since austerity began.

“The last three years had funding certainty which allowed longer term planning.

“This year, after 10 long years of central government grant reduction the settlement was delayed by Brexit and the general election.

“A one-year settlement, announced, late in the day doesn’t assist planning the budget in the medium to long term which in turn benefits strategic approaches to delivery of services.”

In order the close the forecast £10 million budget gap, the council will use £5 million from one-off reserves.

The other £5 million will be made through service cuts and income generation.

By growing the local economy through encouraging new businesses and supporting existing ones to grow over the past year, the council predicts it can raise an extra £2.1 million in business rates.

“We are doing all we can to increase our income generation and we’re showing our commitment by creating a new post to look at how we can maximise our opportunities to raise money,” Cllr Bond said.

“Transforming the way we work as a council will also help us not only be more efficient but work better with our partners to provide residents the right kind of support.

“We cannot do this alone though and we understand that it is a great ask of residents to pay more in council tax but we hope they understand that the vast majority of the additional money will be going directly to the vital work that adult social care and children’s services do for those who need it in our borough.

“Our council tax will still be the lowest on Merseyside and the increase will equate to less than £1 a week for more than 85 per cent of households.

“We believe we should do the right thing for those most in need and we will continue to find ways to support those in need such as extending council tax support to our care leavers to the age of 25.”