Proposed £3million cuts that would force some of Bristol’s poorest residents to pay more council tax are “cruel” and will cause “real harm” including hunger and homelessness, opposition councillors warn. The city council’s Labour cabinet rubber-stamped a range of options to slash support in its Council Tax Reduction Scheme (CTRS) at a meeting on Tuesday (July 4), with the plans going out to public consultation later this month.
Deputy mayor Cllr Craig Cheney said he did not want to withdraw the financial help but that cuts would have to be made elsewhere if not, probably in adult and children’s social care. The scheme, which reduces bills for 22,700 working-age households, will cost £43.4million this year.
Budget cuts agreed by full council in February included shaving £3million from it, from April 2024. Bristol is one of the last remaining councils in England that still has a fully funded CTRS, with three-quarters of eligible low-income homes having their bills paid in full.
Read more: Budget cuts mean some of the poorest homes in Bristol could pay more in council tax
Savings options, which will not affect the 10,000 pension-age households who are protected by a national programme, include maintaining current levels of support, reducing the support available with means testing and introducing a banded scheme with different levels of help depending on incomes. But Cllr Carla Denyer (Green, Clifton Down) told the cabinet meeting: “I understand all too well that council budgets have been brutally cut by 13 years of Conservative government austerity and there is no fat left to trim.
“But of all the cuts, cutting funding for the CTRS must be one of the cruellest. It affects the very lowest income households the most, it will likely make people go hungry, it will inevitably see visits from bailiffs on the poorest in Bristol, as it’s already those that are under the most pressure due to the cost-of-living crisis and they are simply unable to pay. “I’m sure it will make some homeless.”
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Cllr Denyer, the party’s national co-leader, said the cuts would cause “yet more inequality and suffering”. “These are the very last people that the council should be asking to pay more,” she said.
“Please do not go ahead with this proposed cut.” Cllr Patrick McAllister (Green, Hotwells & Harbourside) said: “The proposed options for cutting the CTRS run a severe risk of damaging economic output across Bristol, with a greater impact in poorer areas that have a higher proportion of people currently in receipt of CTRS.”
He said the cabinet report highlighted the likely impact on businesses as more people would have less money to spend. “The danger is that this cut could exacerbate the financial difficulties of the city further down the line,” Cllr McAllister added.
Cllr Cheney (Labour, Hillfields) said: “As someone who grew up on Council Tax Reduction, I absolutely understand, probably more than most people in this room, what it really means to live on Council Tax Reduction and what that would mean if we hadn’t had that support. I’m not particularly happy with us having to do this or even consider looking at this piece of work.
“Of course if we don’t take from here then we have to find somewhere else to take from, and that means probably adult and children’s social care because that is the remains of the budget nowadays, so then we are taking from the poorest and most deprived in the city but just in another place. There are no easy answers to this, we need more money from government, we need it immediately, otherwise we are going to be hurting people in the city and there is no other way around it.
“I don’t have magic wands to wave to resolve it. That said, this is only the consultation, we will listen to the consultation when it comes back and we will look at what happens in the budget-setting process next year when we come to it.”
Deputy mayor Cllr Asher Craig (Labour, St George West) said that despite the cuts to the CTRS, the council was looking to extend council tax support to foster carers. Cllr Denyer said after the meeting: “Today the Labour cabinet agreed to launch a consultation on their plans to cut funding for the CTRS.
“This would cause real harm to some of the poorest people in the city, which is why Greens and Acorn opposed it the first time round in 2017. Greens will fight it again – especially during a cost-of-living crisis, the only ‘right cut’ to this lifeline service is no cut at all.
“The appendix makes it clear that most people relying on this support – who are already under serious pressure – will be significantly worse off, whichever of the proposed cuts options is taken forwards. We shouldn't try to downplay the impact this will have and we cannot balance the books on the backs of the poorest people in Bristol.”
