Council Leader Challenged Over Brighton & Hove Council Tax

A councillor has asked whether people are getting value for money for their council tax payments in Brighton and Hove.

Conservative councillor Alistair McNair said that over the past ten years, from 2012 to 2022, Brighton and Hove City Council had put up its Band D council tax by 42.8 per cent.

He said that the increase was the 12th highest of any council in the country over the same period.

Councillor McNair spoke out at a meeting of the council’s Policy and Resources Committee at Hove Town Hall last night (Thursday 7 October).

He asked the Green leader, Councillor Phélim Mac Cafferty, if residents were receiving “value for money” and what was being done to help families receive help with the cost of living.

Councillor McNair said:

“While Brighton and Hove City Council residents are paying such high levels of council tax compared with the rest of the country, their services received are among the worst.

“For example, Brighton and Hove has among the worst recycling records in England with just 29.4 per cent being recycled.

“Brighton and Hove is well below the national average of 45.5 per cent, with the worst rate in Sussex and among the worst in the south east of England.

“Additionally, many residents don’t receive a regular rubbish collection and the council is not fulfilling its statutory duty of keeping the pavements clear of weeds.

“Will the chair rule out any further council tax rises until these services are more reliably delivered as residents should not have to pay for services they’re not receiving?”

Councillor Mac Cafferty, who chairs the Policy and Resources Committee, said that comparing the average Band D council tax was invalid because low-taxing councils such as Westminster had more housing in higher bands.

Westminster has 15,000 homes in Band H for council tax, compared with just 192 in Brighton and Hove.

Councillor Mac Cafferty also said that the “burden of funding” for adult social care was falling on councils.

He quoted the Local Government Association saying that the recently announced social care reforms would leave a “black hole” in council budgets.

Brighton and Hove used to have one of the lowest annual funding increases in the country from the government, Councillor Mac Cafferty said, adding that it had lost more than £100 million in real-term funding in the past 12 years.

Councillor Mac Cafferty also said:

“We are far from the worst value. In fact, we have higher value for money than Conservative East Sussex.

“The other thing we need to remember (is that) services do cost money. I know this is hard for Conservative Party colleagues to understand.

“We’ve been brave and held on to things like youth centres, supported bus routes, council nurseries and libraries.

“Where we’ve been brave and kept those open, they will, of course, have an impact on the cost of services.”

He said that an external audit report in April found “no evidence of weakness” in the council’s risk management and efficient use of resources.

Councillor Mac Cafferty said that social care charges were means-tested and a discounted parking permit was on the way for low-income households to tackle the pressures of the cost of living.