A councillor claimed “the years of austerity are obviously not over” – despite government assertions to the contrary.
At a meeting of Sefton’s overview and scrutiny committee this evening, councillor Leslie Byron made the remarks when discussing the council’s budget for the coming years.
He said the government made it “difficult to scrutinise” the budget after officers explained that extra money set aside by local government for the next three years has been “front loaded” – meaning no extra money is currently available for future years.
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Last year the chancellor said there would be “absolutely no return to austerity”, a theme he reiterated when discussing the government’s comprehensive spending review last year.
However, according to Sefton Council’s executive director of corporate resources and customer services, Stephan Van Arendsen, the way the government has set aside the additional funding looks set to leave the council relying on council tax revenue to balance the books.
Discussing the government’s financial settlement for local councils announced in December and “confirmed in just the past 24 hours” Mr Arendsen said: “The spending review announced increases for a lot of the public sector available, the total for local government was about £1.5 billion.
“What we know now is that all that has been front loaded for the three year period, so after 2023 there’s no additional funding coming through.
“At the moment the government is saying there will be no additional funding, so any will be from council tax increases, which has been set at 1.99% and 1% for social care.”
Responding, Victoria ward cllr Byrom said: “We went through austerity, that weird time of the pandemic and now it seems to me the years of austerity are obviously not over.
“We’re still having to find cuts in services, the halcyon days when you have a choice, make decisions, plan for the community – it’s still not there, so I think it makes it very difficult for us to adequately scrutinise the budget we do have.
“It’s outrageous the government is saying be prudent, do this, do that – yet still last night, this morning, part of the mathematics were still coming in, in other areas like the fire service budgets, for example.
“It is absolutely not right that the government does not help and certainly austerity is not over, we can see that in this report.”
After the overview and scrutiny committee noted the report, which stated a deficit of just over £4m – the same amount which could be generated by a full 2.99% council tax increase the budget for will now be discussed at cabinet on Thursday.
Following Thursday’s cabinet meeting, a budget for next year will be on the table at a special full meeting of Sefton’s councillors next week.
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