Bradford Council will decide next week whether to agree to a budget that will include a 9.99 per cent Council Tax rise and over £42m worth of cuts.
A decision on the 2024/25 budget will be made at a meeting of the Council on Thursday, with the Council Tax rise coming into effect in April if it is approved.
The budget comes as the Council tries to balance its budget in light of spiralling overspends.
The Council has avoided bankruptcy thanks only to a grant of “emergency financial support” by Government.
This allows the Council to borrow huge amounts of money to fund day to day services, and allows money spent from the sale of assets to prop up its finances.
The proposed budget will be discussed by members of the Council’s Executive on Tuesday before going to full Council on Thursday.
The proposed £42.6m worth of cuts include the scrapping of a £7.5m scheme to improve Bradford City Hall and a planned £3m solar farm at Odsal.
The Council argues that the 9.99 per cent Council Tax rise will “help avoid additional borrowing costs of £111m over the next 20 years.”
Bradford Council Leader Susan Hinchcliffe said: “Following 14 years of cuts to funding from central government and increasing costs of children’s and adult social care the choice we face is stark.
“We either increase council tax by £2-3 a week which I know is hard for many people, or council taxpayers have to spend more of their money in future years on just paying off borrowing costs. It’s not a choice anyone wants to have to make.”
If the tax rise is approved, the Council says it will set up a £1.2M hardship fund “to ease the impact of the rise for those of working age on low incomes.”
Eligible households will get a one-off £30 award credited to the council tax account.
To receive the support, households must be in receipt of Council Tax Reduction and be of working age as of March 31, for existing claimants.
New claimants of working age who apply for Council Tax Reduction between April 1, 2025, and April 1, 2026, will also be eligible for the one-off payment, until the funding is exhausted.
On Tuesday the Bradford Socialist Party handed a petition opposing the Council Tax rise, signed by over 500, to the Council.
Iain Dalton, Socialist Party Yorkshire Regional Secretary, said: “Bradford Council has got into the financial crisis it is in by dutifully implementing the austerity measures handed down during the fifteen years of Tory rule.
“Rather than Starmer’s Labour restoring council finances, they are doubling down on austerity, whilst expecting working class people in Bradford to make up the shortfall.”
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