Members of the county council’s controlling Tory-led Coalition - consisting of Tories, Lib Dems and so-called ‘Independents’ - have been insisting for weeks that they’re setting a 0% increase in Council Tax for the coming year.
Well, on Wednesday morning, 23 February, every single Coalition member at the budget and council-tax setting meeting held in Spennymoor Leisure Centre meekly followed the Tory whip and voted to increase Council Tax by a full 3%. To make matters worse, they’ve chosen to do this in the midst of an unprecedented cost of living crisis and while Boris Johnson’s government is set to increase taxes this coming April - despite promises that they would never do so.
This sends out a clear message that Tories are the same wherever you are. Whether in Westminster Hall or County Hall they’re simply unable to grasp the devastating impact this cost of living crisis is having on the household budgets of ordinary working families in County Durham and beyond. Either that, or they simply don’t care.
On behalf of the Durham Labour Group I gave the Coalition and their followers every opportunity to vote the council tax increase down. Several Labour members followed me in urging the Coalition to step back from their proposal to increase taxes at such a financially precarious time for our residents - but our pleas fell on deaf ears. Despite the promises made by many Coalition members during the local election campaign just a few months ago every Tory, every Lib Dem and every ‘Independent’ member present voted to increase Council Tax by 3%.
I tried explain to Coalition members what kind of impact their council tax hike would have on County Durham residents in these exceptional times - and I’ve published below a transcript of the notes I used. You can draw your own conclusions about why the Tory-led Coalition and their acolytes chose to heap even more pressure on household budgets rather than give hard-pressed families a break during these times of unprecedented financial hardship:
We live in exceptional times, a once in a generation period of financial hardship – and we’ve got to bear that in mind otherwise what I have to say today could be misunderstood or even misrepresented.
What I want to say this morning must also be seen against the backdrop of a unique and ongoing ‘cost of living’ crisis – a crisis that we know is having a severely damaging impact on household income and living standards in County Durham and beyond.
And we know all about the full impact of the crisis because I tabled a Labour motion last month calling on Boris Johnson’s government to ‘take immediate measures to mitigate the impact of the crisis’. That motion was supported by almost every member of the council. Unfortunately it now looks as though Coalition members did so as an empty gesture rather than a genuine statement of intent.
The headline to the budget proposals before us this morning is that - despite claims on their social media pages that they’re holding council tax to a 0% increase - the Tory-led Coalition in County Hall is actually raising its council tax demand as a whole by a full 3% - at a time of severe financial crisis, and while at the same time the Tory government is imposing an increase in taxes nationally too – something they promised at the last election that they would never do.
Notably the Coalition’s proposed council tax hike this year is higher than last year’s under the previous Labour administration. That’s another misleading claim corrected.
Curiously, both the Coalition and the government are proposing to increase the tax burden to pay for a social care crisis that we were told just a few months ago by the Deputy Leader of the council didn’t exist in County Durham. Something doesn’t quite stack up when the Coalition here in County Durham, in lock-step with Boris Johnson’s government, is proposing to double-tax our residents to pay for a social care crisis that they’ve told everyone doesn’t exist!
Cleary that statement by the Leader of the Durham Tories is both contradictory and inconsistent with the facts. However, it falls to individual members of the Coalition to explain that confusion to the residents of County Durham.
For our part we find it completely unacceptable that at a time when households are struggling more than ever before to make ends meet they are now being held back further by members of a county council Coalition that supported our motion just a few weeks ago to give the residents of County Durham a helping hand in a time of crisis.
To be perfectly clear we acknowledge that in ‘normal’ times council tax rises are almost inevitable because of the way central government is actively defunding local council services. As a reminder, back in 2010, when the Tories and Lib Dems first got together in coalition, they unleashed unnecessary austerity on our communities and public services. Since then local authority budgets have seen savage cuts year after year - with government ordering councils to make up the funding shortfall locally by raising council tax.
But these are not ‘normal’ times – and under these specific circumstances, and in these almost unprecedented times of hardship, the Coalition needs to react accordingly when setting its council tax levels - if it truly wants to help alleviate the pressure on hard-pressed family budgets.
Our residents in County Durham are already struggling from the effects of 12 years of Tory government-imposed austerity, and in the motion agreed at full council last month we urged the government to take whichever measures were necessary to alleviate the additional burden of a potential financial catastrophe heading our way. In the motion we were reminded that:
- The value of real-terms wages are falling
- Household disposable income in County Durham is lagging well behind the England average
- Taxes imposed by central government are set to rise from April this year
- Universal Credit benefit payments have been slashed by £20 per week
- Energy prices are set to soar this Spring
- Inflation is rampant and at a 30-year high
- The Resolution Foundation has estimated that the average household will lose around £1200 a year as a consequence
And now we see in the budget papers in front of us this morning that the Coalition in control of Durham County Council proposes to increase council tax by an additional 3%!
The prevailing circumstances I’ve set out here, in troubling times for our residents, mean that this year’s budget and council tax setting process is exceptional in terms of how the Coalition in control of the council can step in and help our residents where central government has failed to do so.
In other words, what the council would do in setting a budget in normal times is no longer relevant this year. These are exceptional times, and with that in mind, if the Coalition genuinely wants to alleviate the pressure on household finances, they need to adopt an exceptional approach to setting council tax levels for this coming year.
For the reasons set out in this statement Labour cannot support this budget in its current form - and we urge likeminded members this morning to support us in rejecting the Coalition’s proposal to increase council tax by 3%. Our residents deserve better, so we call on all genuinely independent members to join us in urging the Coalition to set a balanced budget that serves primarily to alleviate the huge and increasing financial pressure on hard-pressed families in County Durham.
Calls on Boris Johnson’s government to help our residents have fallen on deaf ears. In fact, despite our plea to impose a windfall tax on profit-rich North Sea oil and gas companies they’ve chosen instead to force ordinary working families to stump up more tax from April – so the Coalition in control at DCC must now do everything in its powers to show that in contrast to the government it is actually listening - and then demonstrate that they are prepared to step in and help.
In the introduction to this statement I said that we live in exceptional times where the cost of living crisis is putting unbearable pressure on households across County Durham. As I’ve said, exceptional times require exceptional measures, so we are asking the Coalition to recognise the financial hardship our residents are in, scrap their council tax proposals for this year and come back with something better.
This is the first time that new members will have had a direct input into setting the council tax for County Durham – many of those new members being elected less than a year ago on a promise to reduce council tax – and in some cases even offer a council tax rebate.
Well now is your time. You’ve got the option this morning of either falling in behind the Coalition’s Tory whip and raising council tax by 3% - an increase on last year. Or you can join with Labour in urging the Coalition to come back to the council with a balanced budget that both protects front-line services and also protects households at a time of crisis by setting council tax at a justifiable and affordable level – a budget and an affordable council tax level that gives the residents of County Durham a helping hand when they need it most.
It’s time to choose which side you’re on – and we urge you to show County Durham’s residents and hard-pressed families this morning that you’re on their side by taking a stand against tax rises at a time of exceptional financial hardship. What happens next is in your hands.
