Vocal Voices

So now it seems we are going to be screwed again .Thank you Labour.

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But hang on... Labour is keeping the 5% cap on council tax rises introduced by the Tories. Had the Cons won the GE they would have done the same.

Those are the Tories who cut the council grant by up to 50% in real terms between 2010 and 2022, which meant a reduction in services for all of us, and on whose watch six of the biggest councils went bankrupt.

So, remind me again, which party is it that has screwed us?

Well, 5% will take us up to £280 a month here, so I'm relieved they have kept the cap.
Dorset have forecasted a £13.2m overspend for this current year, which is a third greater than what they actually thought it was going to be.

The Council says much of the overspend is due to increases in demands on services growing faster than expected, particularly in adult social care. The number of adults requiring support from the council is higher than those predicted when the budget was set. Dorset has the largest population of older people per capita of any other county in England and the council is now seeing an increase in demand to help for carers who can no longer support family members, meaning that the council is now providing the care that is needed.

https://www.dorsetecho.co.uk/news/24715 ... ce-budget/

Inevitable, I guess ......

What about Birmingham, whichis seriously in dept due to losing a court cse over equalpay for women. Then there is Warrington who have lost millions due
to bad investments.

And there are others who cannot blame increases in social care.

I think it is time that the public sector reviewed its pension scheme. It has becoming increasingly unaffordable. The private sector has long discontinued final salary scheme. I wonder just how much of our council tax is going towards providing these pensions, leaving a lot less money in the pot to provide for local services. No wonder the taxpayer feels scammed.

The public sector final salary scheme was ended by the Tories in 2021-22, long before Labour came to power.

What the Tories did not do is to stop councils "investing" tax payers' monies in businesses outside of their remit in the hope of making up some of the grant shortfall. There is the "caveat emptor" rule that investments can go up or go down. It has always been the case. Council tax payers were not protected from these chancers with no investment experience.

There is less money in the pot due to austerity and the Tory grant cuts and also them making it a legal requirement for (some) councils to fund adult social care out of council tax receipts (Care Act 2014). Had the 5% cap not been put in place then council tax rises would have got out of control; and the Tories knew this. Councils were put between a rock and a hard place with little option but to cut voluntary services.

The problems we see now were baked into the system long before Labour even got a sniff of never mind came to power.