Councillors rubber stamp lowest council tax rise for 13 year

THE lowest council tax increase in Coventry for 13 years has been rubber stamped by city councillors.

Council tax rises by 2.33 per cent from April, meaning the overwhelming majority of households in Coventry face paying no more than an extra 50p a week.
The move means Coventry City Council has a net budget of £269,394,000 for the financial year 2010/2011.

But the small increase in council tax has come at a cost. With the council coffers hit by the recession - a fall in income coupled with increased demand for services - a total of 79 jobs face the axe, with ten senior manager posts earmarked for the chop.

The budget includes savings of £10 million, with £5.5 million saved through new council chief executive Martin Reeves' ambitious plans to streamline departments' management and administrative structures.

Coun Kevin Foster, deputy leader of the council, admitted the council had faced a number of tough decisions when drawing up this year's budget.

"The whole of the public sector's facing significant financial challenges over the next few years and will have to make some tough spending decisions," Coun Foster said.

"Yet at the same time many hard working Coventry families are also struggling with their own bills and we cannot just pass costs on to them in the form of increased council tax rises.

"Our priorities will be to protect the frontline services which really matter to people - such as increasing the budget for children's social care by £1 million - yet we'll have to work to take out inefficiencies and review what services we continue to provide," he added.

"In particular we'll have to become more focussed on the outcomes of services delivered for local people, rather than the process of doing so."

Coun John Mutton, leader of the Labour group on the council, criticised the budget for cutting £540,000 from care for the elderly and failing to include sufficient cash to repair the city's roads.

And he also accused the Conservative-run council of keeping council tax low on the eve of the council elections.

"It's no coincidence last year the council tax increase was higher when there were no elections, and this year, with the Conservatives worried about losing the elections, we have one of the lowest increases," Coun Mutton said.

But Coun Foster insisted this year's increase was part of the council's medium term financial strategy, which runs to 2013, and said the council hoped to freeze council tax next year if the Conservatives form the next Government.