Council tax increase in Plymouth

It will raise by 4.99 percent

Plymouth City Council has approved  a council tax increase of 4.99 per cent, increases in Tamar Bridge tolls and a balanced budget.

Council leader Tudor Evans (Lab, Ham) said Labour had stabilised local government in Plymouth but that it had been “a hard task to get there”.

He said the finance team had been “amazing” in making millions of pounds of savings but still producing “ambitious” budget which had adapted to changing times.

Raising council tax to the maximum is necessary, he said, because of government funding cuts totalling £700 million since its austerity policy began in 2010.

Tamar Bridge toll increases from £2.60 to £3 and £1.30 to £1.50 were approved, but these will be amended or scrapped if the government agrees to  fund the crossing.

Finance officers said the bridge, which is owned and operated jointly by Plymouth City Council and Cornwall Council, needs to be self-financing and can’t be propped up by council funds.

Some £25 million of extra funding has been set aside for vital services in 2024/25  including children’s services and adult social care, which make up 73 per cent of the budget, more social workers, special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) provision, tackling homelessness and living wage increases.

Cabinet member for finance Mark Lowry (Lab, Southway) said debts are being cleared. “We are starting afresh. I’m fed up with the debt,” he said.

“Let’s deliver the service and give the staff the support they need today and it will be better tomorrow.”

He denied a claim that reserves are being depleted, with £39 million in the bank.

Plymouth was later than most other councils agreeing its budget. With the budget setting deadline looming on Monday, it had been waiting to resolve an issue from 2019 when it borrowed millions of pounds to wipe out a shortfall in its pension fund.

It was seeking a direction from the department of levelling up, housing and communities (DLUHC) about re-classifying the way it is handled in its accounts.

Cllr Lowry said whatever anyone thought of this accounting transaction, which had been described as “unusual but innovative” by auditors, it had saved taxpayers £9 million.

Councillors approved the revenue budget, which pays for services, at £242 million and a capital budget for projects, which is funded from borrowing and capital grants, of £398 million.

Cllr Evans said Plymouth still had the lowest council tax in Devon and Cornwall and the city had secured an average of £30 million in grant funding each year to deliver ambitious projects.

An extra two percentage points is being added to general council tax of 2.99 per cent to go towards adult social care, making a total increase of 4.99 per cent. There council is also putting up others fees and charges in line with inflation.

Cllr Evans said Plymouth is “pulling out all the stops”, from its efforts to create the city’s freeport which would bring new jobs to the city, its work to create the UK’s first national marine park, building new homes in Millbay, the creation of a new ‘district centre’ in Derriford and ongoing efforts with the NHS to tackle the dental crisis,

It is also spending an extra £300,000 on grass-cutting in residential areas after requests from the public.

Leader of the Conservative group Cllr Andy Lugger (Southway) said many of the “wonderful projects” that had been instigated by the city’s council ‘s economic development team were being funded by central government grants, so they were not all bad.

But Independent group leader Cllr Patrick Nicholson (Plympton St Mary) said councillors need to keep pressing for a better deal from central government. He accepted the Labour administration had “done the best it can”.