'˜Magenta alliance' approves budget and council tax rise

Warren Morgan, leader of Brighton and Hove City Council, described how in the third year of a Labour administration ‘there is no slowing in our resolve, no pause in our work, no diminishing of our desire to drive this council forward in the provision of basic services, care for the most vulnerable amongst us, and in securing economic growth’.

Tory support for the budget, in return for including proposals totalling £460,000 for youth services, did not extend to a ringing endorsement of the minority administration’s performance as they described Labour as ‘doing a bad job’.

Meanwhile members of the Green group claimed to have been ‘frozen out of the budget process’ by the other two parties, as its six amendments were all soundly rejected.

The council has already had to make £40m of savings over the last two years and the 2018/19 budget included another £12m savings.

The 5.99 per cent council tax rise, which includes the three per cent adult social care precept, equates to an extra £87.57 a year for a Band D property.

Cllr Morgan highlighted a number of important projects in progress such as the King Alfred redevelopment, a project for new jobs and homes at Preston Barracks, the council-led campaign to save Madeira Terraces, and the building of new affordable homes for those in need.

He said: “Securing the economic future of our city, creating good jobs for our residents, growing businesses for good, building a Brighton and Hove where everyone benefits from growth, this is a task of the city council and with these projects we can and will deliver the strong economic future that Britain and Hove deserves and needs.”

However he criticised the Tory Government for being ‘asleep at the wheel’ as it had failed to tackle the growing funding crisis both in adult social care and local Government as a whole.

The Labour administration did not want to increase council tax by 5.99 per cent but ‘inaction from central Government leaves us no choice if we are to keep our services running’, Cllr Morgan explained.

He added: “I’m fiercely proud of this Labour team, of the work we are doing to lead this city, to secure good quality basic services for all, to ensure the right care for the people who need it, and to guarantee a prosperous future for the many and not the few.”

In particular Labour highlighted an extra £6m for adult social care in the budget, another £3m for children’s social care services, the protection of council nurseries, children’s centres and services for care leavers, £156,000 to tackle criminal exploitation of young people and vulnerable adults, £165,000 more to support rough sleepers, and an additional £400,000 for support and advice for vulnerable people affected by welfare reforms.

City ‘deserves a Tory administration’

Andrew Wealls, who led the Tory response to the budget, said the £460,000 their side proposed for the budget would ‘help support some of the most vulnerable people in the city’.

He described some of the ways the Greens were proposing to fund their amendments was ‘irresponsible’ and criticised the party for not coming and talking to the Conservatives before publishing their ideas at the last minute.

Halfway through his speech he was heckled by a member of the public from the gallery, who shouted: “You have no respect for Brighton and Hove.”

Labour Mayor Mo Marsh, who chaired the meeting, told him: “It’s not appropriate to heckle or barrack.”

Mr Wealls went on to say he was reluctant to give Cllr Morgan a kicking ‘because his other side do it so well’ but questioned whether Labour was getting the basics right in terms of service delivery.

He said: “Tonight we will vote for Labour’s budget. We will do this because we want to make the best of a bad job, and madam mayor Labour in Brighton and Hove is doing a bad job.”

Tony Janio, leader of the Conservative group, raised reports of ‘bitter divisions’ within Brighton and Hove Labour where left wing members would be seek to deselect centrist councillors before the 2019 elections.

He said a Tory administration would focus on ‘endemic waste’ in the council and described how nationally ‘we are moving past the Labour recession and into a golden era of high employment, low unemployment and wages at last rising faster than inflation’.

He added: “With Momentum determined to tear the Labour Party apart next year’s budget might see a different outcome.

“My plea to Labour Party members over the coming year therefore is to not let the extremists within your Labour Party win, not let the infighting spill over and affect the delivery of services to our residents, but I fear that is inevitable.

“This city does not deserve a Labour Party at war with itself, it deserves a fresh start, it deserves a Conservative administration.”

Areas where the £460,000 will be spent include money for:

• Short breaks and day support for young people with learning disabilities

• The independent visitors service for children in care

• Extra mental and emotional support for young people

• Investment in neighbourhood youth work

• Skills and employment support for young people with SEND

• Making greater use of the current youth bus, and

• Supporting young people struggling with substance misuse.

Conservative councillor Steve Bell felt the council should be doing better at helping rough sleepers and tackling waste in the city and took it as evidence Labour ‘is not capable of running this city’.

He added: “It is begrudgingly we are going to support the budget because we feel there is so much more that could be done and things not being done.”

But Labour’s Clare Moonan said that the crisis with rough sleepers in the city was ‘largely about quantity of need rather than quality of service’.

She described how the private rented sector was out of control and ‘it takes just one small stumble for someone to fall into homelessness’.

Tory Lee Wares raised delays and overspends in a number of major projects such as Shelter Hall, adding: “The Labour administration has proven time and time again they are entirely incapable of planning projects. They can’t even run a bath never mind a project. They are no better than a dysfunctional shower.”

But Green councillor Dick Page defended the administration as he pointed out if a sinkhole appeared the council had to cover it up.

He criticised the Tory amendments as a ploy to ‘grab the young people’s vote’ but most ‘will not be conned by that one’.

Greens ‘frozen out of budget process’

Ollie Sykes, Green finance lead, said they should not be blasé about raising council tax to get the authority out of trouble as some residents would struggle to pay their bills.

He described it as ‘scandalous’ successive governments had not sorted out a ‘regressive bodge that is council tax’.

He argued Labour’s budget was ‘rather lacklustre’ on tackling issues around vulnerability, deprivation, and homelessness, adding: “You could be doing so much more but the good news is we have plenty of ideas to improve this budget.”

The Green amendments included:

• Changing forecasts for parking revenue and increasing land search charges

• Reversing cuts at Clermont Family Assessment Centre and to day options for people with learning disabilities at Wellington House, as well as extra cycle parking facilities

• Feasibility work to secure investment in a district heat network, solar farms, and household food waste collection

• Money to address anti-social behaviour and a weekend emptying of litter bins at city centre parks, and more resources to support rough sleepers moving into permanent accommodation

• Removing free parkin rights for councillors to help reduce a cut in home to school transport for disabled pupils

• Installing WiFi in sheltered housing schemes, and

• Borrowing to work towards purchasing property in the city to be used for emergency accommodation.

They were all defeated by 40 votes to 11.

After the meeting, Cllr Sykes said: “The Greens are incredibly disappointed, but after the collusion between the Labour and Conservative Councillors, not surprised to see our positive suggestions for city’s residents be rejected at budget council.

“Labour tried to wriggle out of voting in favour of our ideas by saying our work to reverse their cuts were ‘too complicated.’

“What is complicated about stopping cuts to learning disability services, funding home to school transport, about warmer homes, more park security or ending the practice of outsourcing our emergency accommodation to money-guzzling private companies?”

Green councillors argued they had been ‘frozen out of the budget process’ and repeatedly referred to the ‘purple’ or ‘magenta’ alliance between Labour and the Tories.

Phelim Mac Cafferty, convenor of the Green group, said the Labour administration had ‘failed the city and they are not up to the job’, while its ‘sordid deal with the Tories’ meant it would be hard to ‘oppose Tory cuts while sitting down with them to conjure up a budget deal’.

Green Lizzie Deane was one of several to reference the ‘unholy purple alliance’ and found it ‘extraordinary’ the Conservatives had not proposed any budget amendments.

Fellow Green Leo Littman felt the ‘magenta coalition’ budget proposals were missing the ‘golden thread of sustainability’ and said his party had been ‘frozen out of the budget process’.

Meanwhile Tom Druitt, another Green councillor suggested a lot of the successful or pipeline projects Cllr Morgan was taking credit for dated back to Green administration between 2011 and 2015.

But Labour’s Tom Bewick called the Green amendments ‘gesture politics’ and told the Conservatives they should be worrying about ‘Moggmentum’ rather than Momentum.

He described how thousands of Brighton and Hove families had been hit by welfare reforms, with Tory austerity a ‘political choice not an economic necessity’.

Deputy leader Gill Mitchell raised Labour’s work to maintain bus services and increase subsidies in some areas, adding: “We continue to invest in these services that everyone relies on, delivering good value for taxpayers and being responsive to residents’ needs.”

Anne Meadows, Labour chair of the council’s housing and new homes committee, detailed efforts to provide extra temporary accommodation to prevent homelessness and deliver new affordable housing across the city.

Meanwhile Labour’s Daniel Yates, chair of the health and wellbeing board, described how satisfaction with social care stood at 87 per cent, which was something he thought ‘they should be proud of’.

He said in times of ‘savage cuts’ they needed to be considering greater integration, while prevention was better than cure.

He added: “The punishment the Conservatives are giving to our health and social care services are no cure they are a disaster and they are causing more of a disaster to our city and this country.”

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