In today’s Sheffield City Council Budget meeting Greens have called on the Labour Government to end the austerity policies that have meant year on year cuts to the services Councils provide.
The Green Party amendment to the Council’s budget said,
“the Council had a target of achieving £15.6 million in savings; overall, the Council is working to close a four-year budget gap of approximately £69 million by identifying savings and additional income to offset rising cost pressure;”
Proposing the amendment Green Group Leader Angela Argenzio said,
“Labour say austerity is over, but that is not how it feels for many Sheffielders for whom the cost of living crisis is a fact of everyday life. Council Tax is just one of the bills they have to pay for local services. The cost of living crisis continues and when people are in crisis it is our door that they come to.
“We welcome Government money for the Household Support Fund, now renamed the Crisis and Resilience Fund, but this can only ever be a sticking plaster that fails to address the poverty and inequality that is endemic in our society.
In their motion the Green Party highlighted the Local Government Association response to this year’s Local Government Finance Settlement where they said,
“The pressure on councils to use their full tax raising powers to fund demand-led services such as adult social care means there is increasingly less space for local choice and flexibilities on the part of democratically elected decision-makers. The settlement forecasts that council tax will grow as a share of Core Spending Power from 52.6 per cent in 2025/26 to 55.5 per cent in 2028/29.”
Councillor Argenzio further said,
“We need to reset how we fund local government, not just carry on with the failed old system we have. We have fared better than in previous years but fairer funding is not the same as sufficient funding and we need to make our case along with other councils for a deal that meets the needs of our communities not one that just allows the Council to tick over a bit more easily.
“To help fund this we need a Wealth Tax to tax the assets of the Multi millionaires and Billionaires. A 1% tax on assets over 10 million and a 2% tax on assets over £1 Billion. This would raise an additional £14.8 Billion a year that we could spend on local services. We all will benefit from living in a fairer, more equal society.”
