Lambeth Council tax hike approved

The council approved its budget, including a 4.99 per cent increase made up of a 1.99 per cent rise in council tax and three per cent for the adult social care precept. 

The rise equates to just under £80 extra per year for residents in Band D properties and is the biggest increase that can be made without the council holding a referendum.    

Cabinet already approved proposals for more than £15 million in extra cuts over the next four years in December. 

This was added to the previously agreed cuts of £28 million from 2020 to 2024. 

See more: Lambeth cabinet approves council tax rise

See more: Lambeth cabinet approves cuts

An extra £1.5 million is set to be added to the council tax support scheme for 2022/23, which is expected to reduce bills for 7,000 eligible households “with most of those seeing their bill reduced to nil”.  

At the council meeting the leader of the opposition, Green Cllr Jonathan Bartley, reiterated his concerns that the added support would not come into effect until 2022/23 and that the council plans to raise funds through enforcement.   

Cllr Andy Wilson, cabinet member for finance and performance, previously said there is a precedent for having to go through a long consultation before the extra support is introduced.

But he said between now and the outcome of the consultation the council is putting forward funding to “essentially create the same amount of relief for residents as they would receive under the new council tax support scheme”.

The budget includes an extra £500,000 to support residents at risk of financial hardship and an extra £1 million for discretionary housing payments.

Cllr Wilson said there is significant uncertainty around local government funding.

“Unfortunately, these uncertainties have not been resolved by a succession of Conservative-led governments and not by the Chancellor in his speech this afternoon.  

“As central Government grants fail to keep up with long-term rises in demand for essential services, councils will increasingly be forced to fund services from tax revenues, exacerbating a squeeze on local budgets and tax payers since 2010,” he said.  

The Green opposition put forward a alternative budget, which was voted down.

It proposed a four-day working week for council staff, bringing leisure facilities in-house, and increasing unallocated reserves by cutting special responsibility allowances.

There isn’t one mention of climate change or the climate emergency in the budget report and we continue to echo the concerns expressed by residents

Cllr Bartley said Green councillors will continue to work with the council “to oppose Government cuts, push for more funding, and lobby for a pilot of a universal basic income”.  

But he said: “We would like to ask the council to urgently reconsider the strategy based on growth.

“Not only is this strategy increasingly incompatible with its climate commitments, but it’s also at odds with the huge reported drop in London’s population.  

“There isn’t one mention of climate change or the climate emergency in the budget report and we continue to echo the concerns expressed by residents […] about the slow pace of the council’s process on the climate emergency.”

The alternative budget also proposed that the council sets a corporate carbon budget and takes a “more progressive approach to parking permits that protects those on low incomes”.

Cllr Bartley raised concerns about the council’s estate regeneration programme.

See related: South Lambeth Estate residents suffering from constant works

He said: “The main point of difference between the council and the Green group continues to be the council’s destructive estate demolition programme, which is both socially and environmentally damaging. 

“It now appears that it will produce no net increase in homes at council rent, despite the eye-watering cost and the hardship inflicted on residents.”

The Green group proposed that the council coproduces with residents plans for 3,000 new homes across Lambeth at council rent based on the modelling approach put forward by residents at Cressingham Gardens.

Despite the last few years of annual funding increases for schools in Lambeth, increases for the NHS, increases for social care, Labour and Green councillors will assert like a stuck record that funding for these areas has somehow decreased

Conservative Cllr Tim Briggs blasted the council for raising council tax.

His alternative budget, also voted down, proposed decreasing council tax by one per cent while keeping the three per cent rise for adult social care.

He said: “Despite the last few years of annual funding increases for schools in Lambeth, increases for the NHS, increases for social care, Labour and Green councillors will assert like a stuck record that funding for these areas has somehow decreased.

“Because all my Labour colleagues have at the moment, in the absence of any policies, is virtue signaling and moral superiority about how much they care and how the Conservatives and evil Boris Johnson are all uncaring.”

He added: “The Trust for London charity tells us that the poorest Londoners pay six times more in council tax than the highest earners, as a proportion of income, which is why Conservative councils have been freezing council tax, excluding the social care precept.”

The Conservative amendment to the budget also proposed a cut of £2.1 million to the communications budget and putting half a million into reducing knife crime.

Cllr Briggs came under fire during the meeting after he called a Black councillor by the name of another Black councillor.  

I just want to say that all of our names actually do appear on the screen and I would suggest that Cllr Briggs verses himself on the named councillors before making assertions

Cllr Maria Kay, policy lead on income generation, was speaking on the budget when she said Cllr Brigg’s alternative “would undermine the work to support the borough out of this crisis”.

“Cllr Briggs says that the Government has covered the cost of Covid. I’ve got news for him – it hasn’t.

“Cllr Briggs says that we should cut staff numbers. I’ve got news for him – if he thinks the way to reward the people who provided the PPE to care homes and delivered the food packages is to make them redundant, then it’s no surprise that he and his party are an endangered species here in Lambeth,” Cllr Kay said.

Cllr Briggs called a point of clarification after Cllr Kay spoke, saying she had alleged things that were “just not correct”.

“Based on the document in front of Cllr Masters she can see that there’s no wish to get rid of the communications team […] she made all sorts of allegations”.

Cllr Kay clarified that she is not Cllr Marianna Masters, who is vice chair of the overview and scrutiny committee.

Cllr Briggs defended the mistake, saying he didn’t have her name in front of him and apologised.

Cllr Kay said: “I just want to say that all of our names actually do appear on the screen and I would suggest that Cllr Briggs verses himself on the named councillors before making assertions […]”

Green Cllr Pete Elliott accused the Labour administration of being “detached”, “dispassionate”, and lacking empathy towards residents on estates earmarked for demolition.

He said: “Two residents I know have been hospitalised and many others traumatised by the process that has taken nine years so far, with nothing positive to show.”

Cllr Elliott said the council’s wholly owned house building company Homes for Lambeth needs “greater scrutiny”.

“There appears to be few controls on the spending of Homes for Lambeth and residents need to be listened to, otherwise we will be the next Croydon Council. 

“Almost a decade ago, Lambeth Labour promised to build 1,000 council houses.  

“Ten years along it has managed 13 and sold off many more on the private market,” he said.

Matthew Bennet, cabinet member for planning, investment, and new homes, accused the Green group of “fighting tooth and nail” against new council homes.

“The greens finally seem to have woken up to the housing crisis that we have in this borough. 

“They’ve come forward with a plan proposing a massive building programme with a number that seems to have been plucked out of the air, but without releasing a single bit of detail […] 

“While they throw their energy into blocking new homes, we’re getting on with the work,” he said.