21/02/05 - Conservative Council Tax Setting Speech

COUNCIL BUDGET AND COUNCIL TAX SETTING MEETING

 21^st February 2005

 Proposed by Cllr Nick Martin - Conservative Lead Member Finance
2^nd by Cllr Mike Bawden - Conservative, Leader of the Council

Council Tax is probably the biggest bill that the homeowners of Swindon pay.  For the average homeowner it is over a £1000 per annum.

This budget recommends a 3% rise in Council Tax.  The lowest Council Tax rise in a decade and WE, the Conservative administration, are proud of this fantastic achievement because WE CARE. 

·       We care about pensioners,

·       We care about people on fixed incomes, and

·       We care about people and families on low salaries.

Last year residents found Labour’s 42% increase in Tax, over the last 3 years, completely unacceptable and elected a Conservative Council to deliver value for money.  Today we are here to keep faith with the residents of Swindon.

Why did Labour fail and why is Council Tax such a problem. 

The answer is simple; Tony Blair has been using Council Tax as a STEALTH TAX. 

He has:

·       Reduced government grant support to Swindon Council from 73% to 68% costing Swindon £10,000,000 per annum.

·       Raised the cost of schools and social care to two and three times normal inflation but failed to fund them, and

·       Destroyed the country’s pension industry.  This will cost, through no fault of our own, Swindon Council £703,000 this year and £1,800,000 over the next three years just to repair the damage done to the council’s pension fund.

On the 18^th November 2004 Liberal Councillor Mike Evemy told the Council Meeting that “There is no waste in this Council”.  Well if we had listened to the opposition we would have had a 19.2% tax rise!

Why have the Conservatives succeeded where Labour and their Liberal chums could not? 

Again the answer is clear, we have an exceptionally talented Conservative finance team, Councillors who do money, budgets and computers for a living. During the year the Conservative Finance Team expanded because the Liberal councillor on finance was so impressed that he crossed the floor and became a Conservative. 

We have been ably assisted by the Director of Finance and the council’s finance officers.  We have been assisted by the Directors Team and in seeking Value for Money we have:

·       Challenged

·       Competed

·       Compared and

·       Consulted,

On as much of the council’s spending as we had time to examine.  This year is the beginning and not the end of our journey.

MAY I PAUSE TO THANK EVERBODY INVOLVED IN THIS BUDGET ROUND FOR THE EFFORT THAT THEY HAVE MADE.

We have sought to balance the need for an affordable Council Tax with the need to PROTECT AND INVEST in key services.

The budget proposed for next year 2005/2006 is a net spend of £196,974,000, an increase of 6% on the current year.  It is not a BUDGET OF CUTS. 

·       The Education budget will increase by 5.7% and

·       Social Services by 12.2%. 

The Council has had to find efficiency savings and some other economies to fund the increased investment in priority services and to deliver an affordable council tax rise.

In summary, the budget is made up as follows:

Increased cost demands of nearly £19 million which have been met by:

·      Efficiency savings of £6.7 million [£6.7m]

·      Other savings of £2.6 million [£9.3m]

·      Additional government grant of £6.6 million [£15.9m] and

·      Additional Council Tax revenues of £2.79 million [£18.7m]

Although there has been an increase in central government financial support of £6.6 million, this does not keep pace with the increased cost of public services provided by Swindon Council on behalf of the Blair government. 

The schools budget has risen by £5,524,000 and Social Services spending by £4,648,000.  Together a spending increase of £10,172,000 vastly more than the government gave us.

To spend more on key services and deliver an affordable tax rise has been achieved by cutting waste and mismanagement and by finding efficiency savings.  This must continue throughout next year and beyond. 

Especially with the continued threats to Local Government Settlements that will arise from funding Gordon Browns taxation black hole.

A few words on Consultation

1.      Cemeteries and Crematoria: Having considered the responses to the public consultation, we have decided to only increase charges for cemeteries and crematoria in line with inflation (2%) rather than by the 7% originally proposed, and as a result, remove the proposed saving of £24,000.

2.      Staff Car Parking: Having considered the results of consultation with Council staff and trade unions, we have decided to remove the savings of £150,000 resulting from the proposal to introduce charges for staff car parking.

3.      We have also revised the consultation on charging for day care centres.  In the budget papers presented at Cabinet 2^nd February 2005 a proposal EMERGED for social services to consult on charging £26 per day as a day centre charge. 

This contradicted earlier statements that had been made to and written briefings that had been given to members of the BSTG.  We are pleased to have had this error drawn to our attention and have instructed Social Services to consult on £10 per day. Noting that, the service costs £40 per day and that the majority of users are expected to be able to claim a reduced charge.

These adjustments will be met from the budget and therefore will not effect the level of Council Tax.

To sum up, the Conservative Party has only held overall control of this Council since 25^th June 2004.  In less than a year we have delivered on our election promises. 

·       The CPA inspection has up-graded us to a higher category,

·       We will deliver a affordable Council Tax rise of only 3%, and

·       We are fighting to make our services better value for money.

Driving change and reforming the Labour Legacy is not easy but

We will continue to push this council forward,

Providing BETTER SERVICES to the people of Swindon

And GOOD VALUE FOR MONEY.

We believe in the Conservative principles of CARE AND COMPASSION.  We have listened and we have delivered.

I thank you.