Wirral Council passes ‘no cuts’ budget after hostile debate

Councillors voted by 43 votes to 21 to approve a budget - which contained no major cuts to children's care, adult social care or other vital services - during Monday night's meeting.

The budget will see Council Tax rise by 3.99% – the maximum increase allowed without a public vote.

The council is Labour-led, but the party does not have a majority and must rely on the support of other parties.

Last night, the Lib Dems and the Greens supported Labour's budget, after a Lib Dem amendment seeking to lobby the government for greater school funding was accepted.

But the Tory opposition voted against what they saw as an unambitious and wasteful budget.

Opening the debate, outgoing council leader Pat Hackett said he was proud to put forward a budget which protected key services despite making £32m worth of cuts.

Cllr Hackett then turned his fire on the Tories.

He lambasted the government's 'Fair Funding Review', which he said will see hundreds of millions of pounds taken away from social care budgets in deprived areas of the north such as Wirral, while council's in leafy Tory shires such as Hampshire and Buckinghamshire will get more money.

For Cllr Hackett this meant the government was ignoring the most deprived parts of the borough, which need the council's support the most.

Conservative leader Cllr Ian Lewis hit back by saying the Labour budget contained little substance and few plans.

For Cllr Lewis it was "almost as if the Labour group has run out of stream."

He mentioned a number of "wasteful" Labour initiatives which had been defeated in the last year, such as the end of the council's Wirral View newspaper and the Hoylake Golf Resort project.

On policy, he referred to Cllr Hackett's pledge to start building council houses.

He said: "A year ago the new leader, as he was then, said he agreed with our call to build council houses.

"A year later and not a single house has appeared on the drawing board, let alone on any road in this borough.

"And yet we've had the same promises tonight that he we had last year, that he's looking at at it and he's hoping to do something about it.

"That isn't going to help the 8810 families on the housing waiting list in this borough."

But Cllr Hackett told Cllr Lewis affordable homes were on their way, and directly provided council homes were being considered.

For this reason he told Cllr Lewis to "stop scaremongering".

Wirral Council's budget for the next 12 months will see a range of technical savings made so that frontline services are protected.

These measures include lower contributions to the Merseyside Pension Fund and repaying long-term debts more slowly.

In a spirit of collaboration, Lib Dems Allan Brame and Stuart Kelly rose to defend Labour's budget.

Addressing Cllr Lewis' point on council housing, Cllr Brame said: "We have a choice when we come in to this chamber.

"We can either sit on either side taking chunks out of each other, or we can reach a consensus and agreement in the best interests of our residents throughout Wirral.

"It seems that even when we agree on a policy we have to criticise each other."

Cllr Kelly said the criticism of the budget as unambitious was wrong.

In his view, Wirral Council will always struggle to produce ambitious, forward thinking budgets because the government only gives them one year settlements.

This was what needed to change in his view.

On policy, he thought Cllr Lewis' argument that the council was dragging its feet on council housing was wrong.

He noted there are legal barriers to kickstarting council house building and it will be something that takes time to put in place.

Wirral's Green Party leader Cllr Pat Cleary said he was happy to vote in favour of Labour's budget for the first time in his six years on the council.

His vote in favour was due to environmental moves in the budget, such as a vow to work towards reducing the £4m cost and fossil burning involved in providing energy for the council’s properties.

He also praised the co-operative atmosphere in which the budget was set.

But he did note that the single biggest saving in the budget, a £7m reduction in money towards the Merseyside Pension fund, was due to falling life expectancy.

A report for the fund said a 45-year-old person can expect to live two years less than under last year’s predictions. Something Cllr Cleary called “absolutely shocking”.

On a national level, a recent report showed life expectancy has stalled for the first time in 100 years.

But the slanging match resumed before the night was out.

Labour’s Cllr Tom Usher received rapturous applause from his benches for his take on the Tory’s approach to the budget.

He said: “I find it pretty astounding that the Conservatives, who have managed to squeeze out 325 words for their budget statement, are suggesting the council should reject the Labour budget due to a lack of content.

“As a group of 21 councillors they have managed to grind out a grand total of 16 words each, well done.”

“I’ve certainly read all the Tory budget proposals, which took a grand total of five minutes because it’s 325 words long.”

Cllr Usher responded to the Conservatives’ allegation that the budget lacked content, with his own run down of what the Tory amendment lacked.

He added: “No alternative balanced budget, not a single suggestion or comment or amendment to the schools budget, when the new formula [which] the government has imposed on Wirral has seen a school in Cllr Lewis’ own ward potentially facing £280,000 of reductions next year.

“Not a single proposal on how we actually improve services for residents in Wirral.”

Cllr Lewis said: “I’m sorry to break up the mutual appreciation society tonight.

“[Labour] councillor [Yvonne] Nolan said [her] party has run out of patience, if that’s the case what are they going to do about it.

“There’s nothing in this budget which says what they’re going to do tonight, it’s more hot air as usual.”

As other parties worked together to pass the budget, many criticised the Tories for misreading ‘the mood of the room’, failing to understand what’s going on ‘out there’ and being out of touch with the real world.

On this, Cllr Lewis said: “I’ll tell them what’s happening out there. In December ‘out there’, the country elected the biggest Conservative majority in 32 years.”

As councillors shouted ‘what about Wirral’, due to Labour winning all four seats in the borough in the General Election, Cllr Lewis added: “Wirral is not an island, you depend on the national government for money and you haven’t elected a government because of the claptrap that you’ve come out with tonight.”

Despite the Conservatives’ votes against, Wirral Council’s budget has now been approved and will be in place for the upcoming financial year.