No rise in council tax next year

Dec 16 2009 By Ian Proctor, Harrow Observer

A FREEZE on Harrow's council tax is proposed for next year as part of a budget the council leader described as 'prudent and sensible'.

Savings of £7.3million are planned to help balance the books for 2010/11.

And the Tory administration still has to cut expenditure by another £1m by the time the budget is presented for debate by the full council in February.

While the leadership plans to rein in day-to-day spending - which it stresses are 'efficiency savings' that will not affect services - it has chosen to make adult social care, and waste management and disposal, the focus of £4.5m of extra investment.

Council leader David Ashton said: "From a professional point of view, this is a prudent budget. This budget has been done sensibly.

"We are absolutely committed to providing good value for money services. By freezing council tax for at least the next year, we can help residents keep their household bills down during the tough economic times.

"We know that money is tight at the moment, but we are spending council tax money wisely and are focused on helping to make residents' lives better.

"During the past four years, we have saved more than £45m while investing in priority areas which residents have told us matter most, such as cleaner and safer streets.

"We also know that we don't always get things right and still face a number of challenges. This includes the need to save £50m over the next three years due to inflation, our ageing population, landfill taxes and real-term cuts in government grants.

"We're entering a period where we have to make substantial savings and we're not going to make savings by making a minor change here and there.

"Over the next three years, along with boroughs across London, we will have to look at doing things more efficiently since we're going to be starved of funding from central government."

But the Labour group leader, Councillor Bill Stephenson, said it was difficult, based on the draft budget papers alone, to gauge whether the Tories' figures add up.

"They are under such vague headings, it's impossible to tell what the consequences are for each service. That is why we have demanded to see the impact assessments and ask for them to be given to the press and published on the website, so everybody can see what the proposals are.

"The statement that there is not going to be any cuts in frontHOne services is quite risible."

Speaking about the proposal to keep council tax at the same level as last year, Mr Stephenson said: "Any responsible administration will be looking for a low council tax. All the Labour councils in London have set nought per cent increases and this administration doesn't want to do more than any Labour council.

"However, there's still a £1m black hole to achieve nought per cent."

The draft budget, pubHOshed on Thursday last week, shows the council wants to set aside £1.6m to meet the rising cost of adult social care packages. At the same time, it intends to save £480,000 by bringing eight residential care homes previously managed by Support for living under its own management.

Another £250,000 would be saved through 'improved contract management' with social care providers.

To reflect the growing cost of providing special needs transport for youngsters, the Conservatives plan to add £470,000 to the children's services budget, while an extra £678,000 is needed to cope with the increasing numbers of children needing state care.

The council must pay an expected levy of £955,000 to the West London Waste Authority for processing the borough's rubbish, although this is partially off-set by a rebate of £199,000, earned thanks to the high volume of organic waste the borough delivers for composting.

Savings of £200,000 are expected in the community and environmental department, which Mr Ashton said would be 'general efficiencies'.

Adjustments of library staffing levels will save £30,000 - through nonreplacement of staff who leave - while the library book fund is to be reduced by £25,000.

Half a million pounds of extra income is expected from more-efficient collection of fines for parking offences and anti-social behaviour.