Islington residents will be 40 pence a week poorer after a council tax rise was overwhelmingly approved in a budget meeting last Thursday (25 February).
The increase was passed by 47 votes, with just one member abstaining. It will “help pay for essential local services on which residents rely”, according to Islington Council.
They agreed on an increase of 1.99 per cent on Islington’s council tax, meaning Band D council tax payers will pay around an extra 40 pence per week.
At the start of the meeting, leader of the council Richard Watts said cuts in Government funding to the council’s budget would amount to a further £17 million per year until 2020.
He added that by this time 70 per cent of the council’s funding will have been lost.
The Mayor of Islington, Councillor Richard Greening, said: “We have a very important decision to make tonight to set the council’s budget in an era of unprecedented financial pressure from central government.
“We have to manage those savage cuts the best we can to protect our vital services.”
The annual meeting set out the council’s spending plans for the coming financial year.
Also agreed was further investment into keeping the borough’s young people safe. Councillors decided to spend £500,000 on mentors to help tackle youth crime in Islington.
“We are protecting all funding to youth services for four years,” said Councillor Watts.
“I don’t know another council that is doing that. We are not going to allow the manic violence that led to three teen murders in Islington last year [to continue].”
A Crime and Safety Summit is to be held on Saturday after three young men, Alan Cartwright, Stefan Appleton and Vaso Kakko, died in the borough as a result of knife crime.
The budget also agreed to reduce the council’s general reserves from five per cent to four per cent to help ease the impact of the government’s funding cuts.
The Capital Programme, which sets out the terms of council investment into Islington-based projects, was also agreed. It will see £326m invested in projects over the next three years, including the continuation of existing programmes of investment in new homes (£199m), housing major works and improvements (£122m) and school buildings (£19m).
There will be a drop of funding into projects over this time, with total spending on the Capital Programme falling by 29 per cent from £130m to £92m between 2016 and 2018.
The council expects about 100 redundancies among its almost 4,500 staff as a result of the savings proposed for 2016/17.
Picture: Alan Ford/en.wikipedia.org
[…] in 2015 confirmed cuts of £70 million over the next four years. In 2016 alone it stands to lose £17 million. The Islington police, who are partly funded by the council, face similar cuts: anything up to 44% […]
[…] in 2015 confirmed cuts of £70 million over the next four years. In 2016 alone it stands to lose £17 million. The Islington police, who are partly funded by the council, face similar cuts: anything up to 44% […]
[…] in 2015 confirmed cuts of £70 million over the next four years. In 2016 alone it stands to lose £17 million . The Islington police, who are partly funded by the council, face similar cuts : anything up to […]