This afternoon saw the City Council set both its capital programme and also its revenue budget & council tax for 2008/9.It was the 7th budget meeting I have attended as an elected member of Dundee City Council and was easily the least “raucous” thus far, with the Labour/Liberal Democrat administration’s budget being approved unanimously and, for the first time in a very long time, no alternative proposals on the table.
Cllr Joe Morrow, our administration’s lead person for finance, made a thoughtful speech and my LibDem colleague Cllr Helen Dick seconded the budget proposal. The Council Tax is frozen for the second year in succession (the biggest non-secret in Dundee in the past few days). As £1.7m of our grant settlement would have been withheld by the Scottish Government if the Council Tax had been increased, it was a “no brainer” in terms of deciding on another freeze.
Despite the budget meeting itself being short and, frankly, uneventful, it is the culmination of much work by the administration group and I think all councillors owe a debt of gratitude to finance officers for their extremely hard work on budget preparation.
Dundee City Council has had an extremely good record in terms of low (or nil) council tax increases in recent years. However, looking at the overall local government financial settlement, I think it should be remembered that :
* All the comment about how wonderful it is that ring-fencing has been reduced in scope actually isn’t that brilliant at all. The removal of some of the ring fencing and associated form-filling is – I have no doubt – generally welcomed. However, let’s remember that the purpose of ring-fenced funds is to target funding to achieve policy objectives and with a much greater than average incidence of deprivation in our City compared to the Scottish average, the reduction in such funding will simply not, in time, favour our City. I think many politicians have yet to grasp that point.
* With that in mind, I am particularly concerned that the Scottish Government’s level of regeneration funding in Dundee will be reduced in 2008-9 compared to previous years. The so-called “Fairer” Scotland fund actually delivers to Dundee £230 000 less next year than the previous Community Regeneration Fund and the other associated funds (such as Community Voice and Workforce Plus) did in 2007-8. This impacts adversely on the least affluent, the most vulnerable.
* So, who benefits least from the Scotland wide council tax freeze? The least affluent, who get maximum Council Tax Benefit but will be hardest hit (in terms of household income) by the 3.7% - above inflation – increase in water and sewerage charges added to Council Tax Bills, imposed by Scottish Water, but not eligible for council tax benefit. I think the point has been lost on many, but it appears that to those who have shall be given, and to those who have not shall be taken away. If you care about social justice, this is not exactly good news. Actually, it is pretty depressing.