Labour push through 76% council tax increase

Labour councillors pushed through a 76% council tax increase.

The 13 Labour councillors - the smallest group on Brighton and Hove City Council - pushed through a 76% council tax increase for the 16,000 poorest households in the city.

Last night (Thursday), with support from most Conservative councillors (four abstained), they proposed a tightening of the Council Tax Reduction scheme (CTR), meaning that claimants have to pay at least 15% of their council tax bills, rather than the previous 8.5%. For the most hard-up families - many of them living in wards represented by Labour councillors - it means an £8.32-a-month increase.

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The move was spearheaded by Warren Morgan, a councillor for East Brighton and the Labour Group leader, who earlier this year said working-class families on estates could not afford an extra £2.94 a month under Green Party proposals - subsequently defeated - for a 4.75% across-the-board council tax increase. All members of the minority Green administration opposed the Labour move. The four Conservative councillors who abstained were Graham Cox, Denise Cobb, Dawn Barneet, and Tony Janio.

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