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14
Jan
'We can't win': Opposition councillors criticise government over council tax hike plan
North Yorkshire Council has little option to increase council tax but it could be more ambitious in its finance plans, claim opposition councillors.
The council has proposed a maximum council tax increase of 4.99% as part of its budget as it estimates a shortfall of £17 million for 2026/27.
Senior councillors will also be asked next week to support using reserves to offset its deficit and make £28 million in savings over the next three years.
Cllr Carl Les, Conservative leader of the authority, said the authority had lost £20 million in base funding, despite lobbying central government for a fairer settlement, and it would be forced to make tough decisions.
But some opposition councillors have called on the authority to be more ambitious in its budget proposals, despite facing a difficult financial outlook.
Cllr Peter Lacey, leader of the Liberal Democrat group on the council, said the Conservative-led council had relied too much on savings from the authority moving to a unitary council in 2023.
He said the council’s budget should focus on investing in “long term sustainable solutions”.
Cllr Lacey said:
We recognise the challenging context within which this budget is being set. However, the Tory-led administration has, since the inception of the council in 2023, relied on savings from unitarisation and what might be described as a butcher’s block approach to slicing ever thinner savings from budgets under pressure.
Whilst efforts have been made to address rising cost pressures, particularly in adult social care and children’s services, we have consistently called for a more ambitious approach that reinvests short term savings in long term sustainable solutions.
“We can’t win”
The planned hike in council tax would mean the price paid annually by an average Band D property for council services would increase by £96.78 to £2,036.32.
The total council tax bill is made up of precepts charged by North Yorkshire Council, North Yorkshire Police, North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service, and parish councils.
Cllr Stuart Parsons, leader of the NY Independents group, said neither the council or taxpayers would win from the rise in council tax as the government had left councillors little choice but to back the increase.
He said:
Both the previous Conservative governments and the current Labour government have savagely cut the budgets of local authorities over the past 15 years. We are expected to deliver substantially more services and support whilst substantially cutting funding.
Working miracles is not in the remit of North Yorkshire Council but that is what we are expected to do. It is terrible that North Yorkshire Council is contemplating a 4.99% increase in council tax but this is what the Government has told us to do.
We can’t win and neither can the council tax payers.
Cllr Steve Shaw-Wright, leader of the Labour group on the council, said he recognised that the council had "little option” but to increase council tax to balance its books.
But, he said the authority should focus on “difficult decisions”, such as major projects, to make ends meet.
He said:
North Yorkshire Council needs to begin to make some of the more difficult decisions on major projects that keep being kicked in to the long grass. The council also needs better project management on highway projects with costs spiralling out of control.
The bedding in of unification is taking far too long with issues and problems arising on a regular basis. As ever, the Labour group will assess the budget line by line before any decisions are made on whether to support, amend or oppose the recommendation. We will put the interests of the most vulnerable residents of North Yorkshire foremost in our deliberations.
Meanwhile, Cllr Arnold Warneken, a Green Party councillor who represents Ouseburn division, called for more transparency over the budget.
He said he recognised that the council was in a difficult position, but said in order to put forward any alternative budget proposals opposition councillors needed more information.
Members of North Yorkshire Council’s executive are due to meet next Tuesday (January 20), to discuss the proposed budget.
If approved, it will be considered at a full council meeting next month, before it is adopted by the council.
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