‘We’re being levelled down’ – what the Greens said in the council’s budget debate today

Here is an edited version of what the Green leader of Brighton and Hove City Council, Councillor Phélim Mac Cafferty, said as councillors met to set the council tax and the council’s annual budget today (Thursday 24 February) …

Only six days before our meeting staff in all council departments helped to keep Brighton and Hove residents safe through the worst storm in decades.

Our team gave access to the city’s land to UK Power Networks, preventing mass power outages. They kept our seafront safe, stopped fallen trees blocking the highway and – when the storm had subsided – were out again keeping our streets tidy and much more.

The city council has undoubtedly prevented harm and worse to many more with the proactive, silent hand of local government – a far cry I might add from the lazy accusations that the council’s workforce “aren’t working”.

So I would like to start tonight’s speech by thanking our staff. This is the very best of public sector service and the very things the Green budget this evening will protect – frontline services which keep people safe.

We’ll protect public services which guard the health and economic prosperity of our city and help us fight covid while we fight the climate crisis.

This is why we defend public services. But this is also why we say that the grotesque austerity experiment has hit the end of the road. Our city can no longer afford further government cuts or the tragedy that awaits with more cuts ahead.

There can be no denying the impact that 12 years of Conservative government has had on public services. But despite being at the very forefront of the response to the devastating pandemic, the investment in services that residents and businesses desperately need has not materialised.

Instead, it’s been hit after hit, as part of the decade-long programme of austerity cuts that has stripped £100 million from Brighton and Hove.

The pandemic has driven a surge in need for council help – with huge demand for children’s services and to support marginalised adults.

We calculate it will cost £7 million this year alone to ensure children’s social services and adult social care can meet demand.

Despite the onset of omicron just a few months ago, no further funding has been made available to address covid-19 costs this year.

Programmes like “Everyone In”, that proved it was possible for ministers – overnight – to take homeless people off the streets, have been scrapped.

Off the back of this comes a rising fuel bill and a cost of living crisis that I’m angered will affect those already hit by hardship.

The council stands ready to help – but we need fair resources to support residents who need help now.

Despite the vain promise that Downing Street would “fix” social care, once again they’ve pushed council tax as the solution to funding local services.

“We believe council tax is a regressive tax that we have long made clear we think should be reformed. But as we know that council tax is one of the bills our poorest households struggle with, we’re increasing support so bills are lower.

Given council tax provides only 19 per cent of the budget, we are stuck between increasing it and other fees and charges or making unacceptable decisions about closing services down altogether.

Despite the immense challenges, we’ve been able to prevent the worst impacts of cuts and bring the budget gap down from £18 million to £2 million.

Every effort has been made to modernise and merge services to reduce costs. We’re prioritising ways to keep public services running for our residents and tackle the cost of living crisis. Our budget provides 90 additional council homes and uses over £1 million to ensure low rents.

We’re investing in a warmer homes insulation programme that has already seen solar panels installed first on the coldest homes with the highest costs.

We’ve prioritised the council’s welfare support fund so we can provide emergency help with food and bills.

While the government’s short-sighted covid “Household Support Fund” will end on Thursday 31 March, we’ve boosted our resources to step in and provide extra support on Friday 1 April.

All of what we have done is using the limited resources and powers we have, in stark contrast to the government’s actions this week – £6 for a covid test and sick pay docked for the first three days off with covid.

Yet I’m clear we will focus on what is possible for residents, working in collaboration with our fantastic community and voluntary sector, which is also supporting residents at the sharp end.

My concern is particularly with those often labelled “just about managing” – frozen out of benefit eligibility, living payday to payday, and for whom any change in spending will spell danger.

In the budget we’re increasing funding to the local hardship fund that helps people in serious need who can’t afford to pay for vital household goods such as a bed, cooker or fridge, for gas and electricity and other essentials they desperately need.

The city council is also working in partnership with fantastic local organisations such as the Brighton and Hove Energy Services Co-operative (BHESCO) so that residents in the city on a low income – or with a family member who is vulnerable – can access free energy improvements such as low-energy lights, window and door draught excluders and secondary glazing.

I want to be clear that this budget will also ensure some of the emergency work that was created at the start of the covid-19 pandemic such as the council’s community hub is still here for residents and our budget this evening will ensure it stays in place.

If you’re struggling to pay for food, fuel and other essentials you are not alone, there is help available. And as long as I have a directs say in the setting of the budget that will always be the case.

Our carbon neutral fund is maintained and it’s not a nice to have – it’s a key way we’ll invest in renewable energy, for lower bills and a heathier planet.

And in the context of the conflict in Ukraine we have never been more sharply reminded that we need to be more self-reliant and have safe, clean, local, renewable energy.

While across the country councils like Croydon consulted on closing every single community library, we’ve kept ours open and kept nurseries and leisure centres open too.

We’re making sure the city keeps moving and has a bright future. We will continue to fight the climate crisis, particularly when it’s those on the lowest incomes who not only can’t afford a car but are also hit hardest by things like bad air quality.

And we’ll put our money where our mouth is – with funding to reduce toxic emissions and improve health and wellbeing by planting trees. We’ll provide better access to cheaper transport options like walking and cycling.

I am proud we were the first council leadership to pilot a 24-hour graffiti removal service that has seen teams spend 906 hours on this work, where we’ve had the first set of consecutive deep cleans of the city – with more in this budget for the future – where we’re keeping investment in our heritage, like the Victoria fountain and our seafront lighting.

There’s more funding for tackling graffiti, tackling weeding and investing in our parks and open spaces. There’s also funding we’ve secured throughout the year – such as the £9 million for the Kingsway to the Sea regeneration project, and £10 million for Madeira Terrace.7

Our council, like public services across the city, continues to step in as government fails to respond to a crisis yet again. Yet we do this with our hands tied.

For all the talk of “levelling up”, over £100 million has been cut from our city.

We’re being levelled down. We will never stop championing the value of service that keep residents and our city going.

We’ll continue to lobby government for the funding we know Brighton and Hove deserves. Greens are standing up for the public services we know residents need and investing for a fair future.