Council funding settlement slammed by Liberal Democrats

The Government’s national funding settlement has been slammed by Oldham’s Liberal Democrats, after a 5% rise in Council was written into their calculations for core funding for local authorities, which led to any budget amendment which included a lower rise being refused. 

For several years, the Government has recommended that local authorities increase their Council Tax by 2.99%, with an additional 2% increase for social care. This has now been formalised in the Government’s calculations, making it nearly impossible for them to keep increases lower, even when inflation is below 5%. The Labour Government also put off a a decision on social care funding – the most pressing issue facing local government – for three years. 

Councillor Al-Hamdani, deputy leader of the Liberal Democrat group, said: “Council tax is a terrible way of funding local services, particular for towns like Oldham. The Government is running scared from the fundamental changes that are needed to make taxation for local services fair.

In order to ensure that they could provide alternative budget proposals, the Liberal Democrats objected to the 5% council tax rise in their amendment, but did not include it in their formal calculations, which enabled them to be the only party to put forward any alternatives to the Labour administration.  

Councillor Al-Hamdani added: “The administration might not be in a position to call out the Government for their failure to address this, but we’re not, and it’s simply not good enough.

“It means that the social care teams working so hard in Oldham are undermined by a simple lack of fair funding. This Government promised change – but on this fundamental issue, which is undermining the NHS and local services – they are still failing to rise to the challenge.”