People Before Profit have been challenged by Belfast City Council to come up with an alternative to raising the district rates by the end of this week.
At the monthly full council meeting, held on Tuesday (January 1), PBP Councillor Matt Collins called for no increase to the council tax. People Before Profit were the only party indicating a challenge to a rate increase at the meeting.
Councillor Collins said: “I think it is six years in a row now that we have seen increases in the rate. It is not a small or marginal or ineffectual increase, in the way it is often presented, because we have seen so many increases subsequently over so many years now.”
The meeting saw a political pile-on, with parties lining up to criticise People Before Profit for not having a credible alternative to raising the rates for residents and businesses in the city.
DUP Alderman Brian Kingston said: “They argue for more expenditure, while at the same time wanting to reduce income - this is what we have come to expect from People Before Profit, which is incompetence. It is a legal requirement to keep a certain level of reserves, and you cannot fund a rate increase from reserves.”
Alliance Councillor Michael Long said: “We have heard the same stunt every year since People Before Profit were on the council. They don’t have any single idea what they want to do with the rate - they don’t know what to put on, they don’t know what to remove, they don’t know what services are to be cut, they don’t know what jobs would need to be cut.”
A Sinn Fein proposal challenging People Before Profit to provide a fiscal plan detailing how to avoid a district rate raise, and deferring temporarily a decision on the rate, received majority support. However the city solicitor John Walsh said due to the legal time frame of rate setting the deferral could only last until this Friday (January 4).
The city solicitor summed up the council decision, worded by himself, and accepted by Sinn Fein. He said: “Unless People Before Profit offer proposals for striking the rate by February 4, the decision by Strategic Policy and Resources shall stand ratified. If such proposals are made, S,P & R will be convened and thereafter a special council to consider same.”
He added: “Any proposal here of simply striking the rate at zero without having a formulated way of doing that is not actually legally competent.” Councillor Collins called it “a bizarre proposal.”
The district rate rise proposed for this year is 2.99 percent, and is yet to be ratified. Last year the district rate was increased by 1.92 per cent. That meant an average increase of £8.90 per year for a house, £145.19 per year for an office unit, and £118.94 per year, for a retail unit.
The council states on its website: “Each year we estimate our income and expenditure for the next financial year. Based on these estimates, we set a district rate for that financial year. The money that we get from district rates enables us to deliver our services during the year.”
PBP Councillor Fiona Ferguson said after the meeting the decision to raise rates was “unconscionable, particularly considering the winter of hardship many working class people continue to face.”
She added: “The hike in rates, supported by all of the parties except People Before Profit, is another financial hit to working class families. Soaring fuel prices, the £20 Universal Credit cut, cost of living rises, and stagnant wages have all culminated in a winter of hardship, which will be worsened by this decision.
“Moreover, this decision is particularly abhorrent because Belfast City Council has £14 million in 'reserves' - a pot of unused money. The council has implemented rate freezes in the past and we think the current financial context warrants another freeze - but the other parties on the council don't agree."
