Birmingham residents back council tax hike, says Bore

21 Jan 14
A majority of people responding to Birmingham City Council's consultation on its future spending plans support an increase in council tax of 2% or above from April, council leader Sir Albert Bore has revealed.

By Richard Johnstone | 21 January 2014

A majority of people responding to Birmingham City Council's consultation on its future spending plans support an increase in council tax of 2% or above from April, council leader Sir Albert Bore has revealed.

Speaking to Public Finance ahead of a meeting with local government minister Brandon Lewis today, Bore said the 61% backing for a rise showed ‘a lot of people believe these cuts have gone too far’. There is a feeling that ‘anything that can help mitigate the cuts, as long as it’s not unreasonable, needs to be put in place’ following the consultation, which closed on January 10.

However, the authority, England’s largest, cannot commit to setting council tax before the government has confirmed the trigger level for local referendums on increases. This was set at above 2% in 2013/14, but ministers have said it could be lowered to encourage authorities to accept the government’s council tax freeze grant.

Bore warned that if the referendum limit was set below 2%, a lower tax increase without a vote would lead to further cuts in addition to the £88.4m already planned for 2014/15.

Bore also warned that Birmingham faces discontinuing some services entirely the following year if government goes ahead with planned reductions.

A council service review, to be launched next month, will consider what he called the ‘Armageddon step’ of halting some services in 2015/16, he said. Birmingham projects that £293.2m of savings will be needed.

‘We are about to press the button on a new service review, which will last from February all the way through to the autumn. We will be seeking – through a number of different measures – to priortise spending across the city council, across every single directorate,’ he said.

‘Subsequently, towards October and November, we will turn that prioritisation exercise into a series of budget proposals, where we will be suggesting that the moment has come where a certain number of services should be discontinued.’

The council will look at statutory services, including what service levels need to be provided, as Bore warned reductions could make authorities unsustainable.

The government tells you you’ve got a statutory service, but don’t tell you about the nature of the service levels that you’ve got to deliver,’ he said.

So you can actually adjust what the level of the service is, which will meet your statutory requirement. For example, you’re required to provide a library service which is universal, but who defines what universal is?’

He called on ministers to make reductions in 2015/16 on a pro-rata basis linked to local authority spending power so they would be equal across the country and not higher for urban areas, as they will be in 2014/15.

‘The argument we have for 2015/16 is that it’s an unsustainable environment we’re in. You’ve got to do something about 2015/16 otherwise you’re going to see, in my view, elements of local government falling over.’

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