Council tax cut of 1% approved in Redcar and Cleveland

Families in Redcar & Cleveland are set to benefit from a cut of just over 1% in their council tax.

A special full council meeting today approved a 1.003% cut, which will set the authority’s element for a non-parish Band D property at £1,376.19 - a £13.95 reduction on 2014-15. A Band A property will be £917.46.

Twenty-nine councillors voted for the proposed budget, with two against and 18 abstensions. A Labour amendment for a council tax freeze in 2015-16 and “consultation on an extension of the freeze into the financial year 2016/17” was rejected 34 votes to 16. Moving the budget, Cabinet member for corporate resources, Councillor Glyn Nightingale, said it would be “the first ever cut in council tax locally. It’s unprecedented, and it’s great news for local people.”

He said the money would come from reserves left in the budget “by Labour’s flimsy financial planning.”

But the council’s new Labour group leader Councillor Sue Jeffrey accused the council’s ruling Independent/Lib Dem coalition of drawing up the budget “on the hoof”.

Calling it a “cash grab from reserves”, she said it was a “cynical ploy to buy votes from the electorate” from an administration that, after the May elections, wouldn’t be around to deal with the consequences.

Former council leader George Dunning accused the coalition of following “the economics of the madhouse” and Labour of a “smoke and mirrors” policy.

Redcar and Cleveland Council leader Mary Lanigan

But new leader independent councillor Mary Lanigan denied it was a gimmick.

She said: “We looked at the figures that we had, and at the hike we got from the police and fire authorities, and we have tried to help everybody across the borough.”

Conservative Valerie Halton said Labour could have frozen council tax for the past three years “but chose not to do it.”

And independent councillor Steve Kay said the “chance to make history” by reducing council tax shouldn’t be passed up, adding: “It’s a chance to take money out of the council’s coffers and put it back in people’s pockets.”

But some Labour councillors said a 1% cut would eventually translate to the loss of 20 jobs - a claim denied by the coalition.

At the same meeting, a recommendation to increase councillors’ basic and other allowances was rejected.

A report by the Independent Renumeration Panel had recommended councillors’ basic allowances went up by 2.2% from £9,550 to £9,760, while the leader’s additional “special responsibilty allowance” would rise from £12,890 to £14,880.

But Cllr Nightingale moved rejection of the report, meaning allowances will stay frozen at current levels. Cllr Lanigan said she had already decided not to accept any increase in her allowances, adding: “I just don’t think it’s appropriate.”