Council tax rise will be painful

Cllr Morgan said more support would be available for those struggling to cope while calling for a national review into “not fit for purpose” council funding.

The Labour councillor said there would be no “backroom deals” to get the budget passed tonight.

And he said his administration had not ignored youth cuts protesters though time and money had run out for an organised transition of services into the community.

The council leader said there was no “bloated bureaucracy” to cut, auditors had recently improved the council’s rating for value for money for taxpayers and all the £20 million cuts in a sixth year of savings would have an impact.

But he said investment to improve services continued and resident satisfaction was up 20 per cent despite difficult financial circumstances.

Cllr Morgan admitted some residents would find it difficult facing the highest council tax rise in a decade increasing bills by £69 for band D homes.

He said: “Council tax is not a progressive tax, it impacts disproportionately people on low incomes.

“I would like the Government to do a review of how councils are funded.

“They are saying councils should be funded by a regressive property tax, council tax based on outdated property valuations from 1991 and business rates set nationally not locally.”

Last year’s budget was passed after more than six hours while a second meeting was required in 2015.

Cllr Morgan is hopeful of a smoother process following “positive discussions” with opposition parties.

He said: “I think it is a better way to do it in public, a democratic vote, rather than us disappearing off into a back room to do a deal behind closed doors as has happened over recent years.

“I don’t think any reasonable observer would say that a disagreement over one per cent of the budget is enough to block the whole thing.”

Cllr Morgan said youth services were not facing a “total axe” and £200,000 had been put back into the budget.

He said: “Youth services is something we should have started changing earlier, we’ve kind of run out of time and money to avoid cuts to the youth service. If it had been transferred to the voluntary and community sector earlier it would have been a more organised transition.”

BUDGET PROCESS IS A BATTLE OF WILLS AND POLITICAL NOUS

THE budget is somewhere between a chess match and an arm wrestle.

Last year it was the Conservatives with the biggest biceps and Garry Kasparov moves as they were able to secure almost all their amendments on grass verges, public toilets and noise patrol services.

Labour leader Warren Morgan had promised to deliver a decision on the night, anxious to prove his administration could get the job done where the Greens had failed in the past, but with the Green group not submitting amendments the Tories were confident Labour would have to blink first in the wee small hours.

This year with the Green putting forward amendments, Cllr Morgan now has more options.

And he will be grateful for those options as he will find some Conservative amendments hard to swallow – in particular one proposal to scrap the “talking shop” that is the neighbourhood, communities and equality committee.

Cllr Morgan said the committee and directorate his admission created was at the heart of how the council would deliver services, that a lot of “very serious, very meaty reports” would be going through it in the next 12 months while its new director had only been in post for a month.

The Labour leader has described Tory plans to save some youth services with a cut to the Housing Revenue Account meaning youth groups would only be available to council tenants as “impracticable”.

Plans to fund the Mile Oak Park playground is also a political move into Labour heartland by Conservatives hopeful of electoral success there in 2019.

Unions are also opposed to the Conservatives’ plan saying they would lead to further job losses and would be “robbing Peter to pay Paul”.

Should the Tory amendments prove unpalatable, then the Labour minority administration could turn to the Greens for a friend to help them get the budget through.

The two groups are more closely linked ideologically but rarely work together, both conscious they are fighting for the same supporters. The Greens’ amendment are ambitious in scale totalling around £2 million and again some may be considered anathema by Labour – in particular the use of £1 million underspend in the Digital First programme on preparing empty council buildings for the homeless, the Stanmer Park restoration and retain the Easylink bus service Cllr Morgan places similar importance on this scheme as he does with neighbourhoods and told me yesterday that it will be “really kicking in” in the next 12 months.

Unfortunately the proposals may have been too ambitious as late yesterday afternoon the group was forced to “water down” its plans after concerns raised by both council officers and the Labour administration.

The Greens will be less likely to support £20 million of cuts if they cannot be credited with saving youth services, early help and downland sites.

Expect a few more twists and turns before 11pm tonight.