The leader of Northumberland Labour has hit out at the Conservative-led administration at County Hall after concerns were raised around future council tax rises. It comes after the county’s Labour MPs welcomed an additional £73.2 million in funding for the council by 2029, on top of £25 million already provided this year.
However, the Government’s own figures show that just £12.6 million of this cash will come from Westminster, while the rest – equating to 82.8% of the total £73.2 million additional funding. The Tory administration has branded this as the “biggest local tax rise ever” and criticised the Government for providing more cash for urban areas over rural county councils.
But Labour leader Coun Scott Dickinson has pointed out that the council has increased council tax by the maximum level allowed for the past eight years – most of those under a Conservative Government.
Scott Dickinson comment
“Last year the council was given over £20 million more and branded it ‘insignificant’. This year there’s more funding again — yet instead of working constructively, the Conservatives running the council immediately jump to ‘council tax will have to go up because of the settlement’.
“For the past eight years, council tax has gone up at the maximum level, year after year, under Conservative government settlements and back then there were no public pleas of poverty from the Tory council. Just silence, followed by some truly poor decisions and wasteful spending.
“This kind of gutter-level, misleading politics is exactly what turns people off. Residents would rather be told the truth, even when it’s difficult, than fed spin and blame games.”
There were frequent clashes last year between Labour and Conservative councillors ahead of the local elections on the level of funding provided. The Tories were particularly disappointed with the removal of the rural services delivery grant, which recognised the difficulty of providing council services in large rural counties.
Responding to Coun Dickinson’s comments, cabinet member for finance Coun Nick Oliver said: “It’s fair to say that the Northumberland settlement is never enough under any Government and, with public spending out of control, our expectations weren’t high.
“Labour politicians in Northumberland have pivoted 180 degrees from crying ‘Tory Cuts’ in response to Conservative settlements to gaslighting the public with their ridiculous claims about ‘sorting out’ council funding. They say they are improving funding by £102.8m but their own figures on the Government website confirm this is actually £12.6m – an egregious error.
“Either they don’t understand their own figures or they are deliberately misleading Northumberland residents. They promised a ‘Fair Funding Review’ and delivered a cash grab from rural areas to spend more in the cities.
“Keir Starmer promised over and over again that your council tax would not go up under a Labour Government and delivered the largest ever local tax rise on us all. This is the Government that promises everything and delivers nothing.”
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