Council Tax Freeze & More Police: Manchester Lib Dems present Budget

1.17.29am UTC (GMT +0000) Wed 1st Mar 2006

Liberal Democrats on Manchester City Council say they will find extra cash in the city's budget to pay for 40 extra officers to fight crime, as well as a Council Tax freeze in the first year of a Lib Dem administration.

Councillor Marc Ramsbottom, Lib Dem Shadow Finance boss on Manchester City Council will present his alternative budget at today's Budget Council meeting, Wednesday 1st March 2006.

He will say:

"We back the Chief Constable in his call for extra cash to fight crime on our streets. Under the Liberal Democrats we would provide direct funding to the police boss to pay for an extra 40 officers in Manchester. We are serious about tackling crime and anti social behaviour in our communities. Labour are only interested in sounding tough to catch a few newspaper headlines. We believe the Chief Constable should be given the resources he needs to do the job properly.

We will also be proposing a zero increase in Council Tax bills for the coming financial year. We believe that Council Tax Payers deserve better value for money for the services they receive and in the first year of a Liberal Democrat administration, we would freeze the Council Tax at current levels. We also pledge that in any subsequent years of a Liberal Democrat administration, Council Tax increases will be kept to a minimum, and certainly no higher that the normal rate of inflation.

The Council Tax has become Labour's Poll Tax. It is grossly unfair, as it takes no account of income, or a person's ability to pay. Even Government Ministers have acknowledged that the poor pay a larger proportion of their income on Council Tax than wealthy people.

The Council Tax is also extraordinarily expensive to administer. It costs Manchester over £4 million to collect the Council Tax. This is money that could be used to help fund front line services, if we had a fairer system of local income tax that was collected by the Inland Revenue.

Over the next two years, Manchester will lose £25million in government funding because of Government grant rules regarding floors and ceilings. We have in Britain the most impenetrable, opaque and confusing grants mechanism in the world and this, coupled with an over reliance on Central Government funding, gives Councils little real freedom to manage their affairs properly.

We will transform the way the Council informs and consults with local people. We will be open and honest with citizens and restore trust in the Council and the way it works with our communities. We will hold regular Question Time meetings in local neighbourhoods with the Leader of the Council and top Council officials. We will allow residents to present petitions to Town Hall meetings as well as on-line.

We will reduce Labour's waste and inefficiency.

We will make a start and set an example by cutting special responsibility allowances paid to Councillors. We will save £40,000 by cutting these extra payments to Councillors.

We are pleased that a start has been made on slimming down the number of Manchester Town Hall departments as we suggested in our budget last year, but a Liberal Democrat-run Council will ensure that waste and red tape is tackled.

The levels of funding proposed for the failing City Centre URBIS cannot be justified - over £2m a year is totally unacceptable. We will reduce the City Council's budget for URBIS in the next financial year by £1 million.

Last year, we suggested that the Council should do more to tackle the use of expensive agency staff and consultants. We are pleased to see the City Treasurer has identified significant savings in this area as part of procurement savings. We do think that more could be done and so would like to see further savings of £250k in this area.

For Manchester to be a world-class city we need major improvements to the quality of our public spaces. Some of our parks and gardens have been neglected over the years, and need investment. We will put in 10% additional funding to improve lighting, gates, fencing and infrastructure as well as install new play equipment in parks and gardens across the city.

We will also spend an extra £1 million improving environmental services in the city. We want to see a clean city 365 days a year, not just a prolonged photo opportunity just before the elections for the Labour Party as at present. We will extend recycling to include cardboard, plastic bottles, food and drink cans as well as improving recycling in the city's flats and maisonettes where people have little chance to recycle at present.

We have identified a total of £3.6million to be spent on environmental and community safety projects to be determined and spent by local people, community groups and Councillors in each ward.

We also propose to make Environment On-Call a free-phone number so that people contacting the Council will not be charged for this service. We will also carry out additional repairs to footpaths in the year.

We are also committed to create a healthy city. We will provide a 'Free Swim Voucher' to every under 16 year old and every over 65 citizen in Manchester, to be used at any of Manchester's swimming pools. This will encourage more people to use our facilities as well as promote exercise and healthy living.

Labour has also failed on education in our city. Despite promises of improvement, educational attainment and attendance remains amongst the worst in the country. Lib Dems will provide an additional £1 million targeted to improve attendance in our schools. This will be directly available to schools to employ attendance officers. We will reverse the cuts in the school clothing grant made by Labour.

Our plans show increased spending on priority areas in front line services to see a safer, cleaner and greener city. We will cut Labour waste to help pay for this, as well as the prudent use of reserves.

A Liberal Democrat Council will make a real difference in the way the Town Hall is run and we will make a real difference to improving people's lives in our city."

Our detailed proposals and financial costings are set out in the separate Budget Paper attached with this email.

City Budget 2006

Introduction

After over 30 years in power, Labour has lost its way in Manchester. Despite promises of improvement, Labour-run Manchester means high Council Tax and low quality services. Residents' surveys show serious levels of dissatisfaction with Council services, with little sign of any improvement. Labour has been in power for too long. They have become arrogant and out of touch. There are too many top-down plans and targets.

All Council publications and press releases tend to report only those things that put the Council in a good light. Little is heard in them about the Council's poor record on school attendance or the loss of green space in our city. It fails to admit mistakes and waste taxpayers money on pet schemes such as Urbis, B of the Bang or the £34 million spent on the Gateway Interchange that stands empty. It fails to learn from others on how to bring down the high level of uncollected Council Tax, rents and business rates.

Labour is undemocratic in the way it runs the Town Hall. A Liberal Democrat-led Council would trust residents and build decision-making up from communities. We would take Town hall bosses out of their officers and into our communities so they understand the needs and concerns of local people.

Council Tax

Liberal Democrats believe in fair, progressive taxation based on the ability to pay. But we also believe that the local Council must achieve better spending rather than bigger spending. Council Tax is now as unpopular as the poll tax. It cannot be right that the Council Tax in Manchester is nearly double what it is in Westminster for the same band. Nor is it acceptable for the poorest 10% to pay four times more of their income in Council Tax than the richest 10%.

Under a local income tax, 70% of council tax payers would pay less. It is a fair, efficient and tried and tested means of local taxation. It would make the Council more accountable to its residents. It would save up to £1.5 million in Manchester which could be ploughed back into local services because it would be cheaper to collect than council tax. It would use the national income tax system and do away with the need to calculate council tax benefits and housing benefit separately.

Above all residents want to see the Council deliver high-quality, high-value front-line services. Despite many promises that service quality will get better the Audit Commission's latest report shows that things have hardly improved since 2001. We were promised by the Council Leader that legacy of the Commonwealth Games would mean huge improvements in service standards, but these have failed to materialise. After the Games were over, standards soon slipped back to the way they were before.

Liberal Democrats Can Win

In recent years the Liberal Democrats have been gaining on Labour. Last time we won 14 seats of the city's 32 wards. Yet again, no Tories were elected. In 2005 the people of Manchester Withington elected Liberal Democrat MP. This year we only need 9 seats to change hands from Labour to the Liberal Democrat for us take control of the Council. We can win, as we have done in Leeds, Liverpool, Bristol and Newcastle.

Our budget for the city is a budget based on how the Liberal Democrats would run Manchester. It is based on our knowledge of the city, our neighbourhoods and communities. We believe it is shared by the vast majority of people who live and work here.

Our Vision

Liberal Democrats want Manchester to be a world class city. We will build on our unique history to create a vibrant, progressive and clean city that celebrates diversity and that encourages and helps citizens to make Manchester a great place to live and work.

Our aims are straightforward - we want to see a Cleaner, Greener and Safer Manchester.

Liberal Democrat Priorities:

To achieve this we have a plan of action and set out priorities. These can be summarised as follows:

1) We will freeze Council Tax and wage war on Labour's Town Hall waste.

2) We will reverse Labour's cuts to Policing funding for Manchester.

3) We will give local communities more power over local services.

4) We will make Manchester cleaner and recycle more all year round.

5) We will help create local jobs and spread the benefits of regeneration

to all.

Our Programme

A Liberal Democrat run Council will:

- Root out waste and inefficiency and achieve a zero Council Tax increase in 2006/7 and holding council tax rises to the rate of inflation or below over the next three years.

- Seek to raise educational attainment of our children by investing an extra £1 million to improve attendance.

- devolve real power on issues such as planning and street cleaning to ward and area committees

- We will also spend an extra £1 million improving environmental services in the city. We want to see a clean city 365 days a year, not just a prolonged photo opportunity just before the elections for the Labour Party as at present.

- Work with the Chief Constable to 'buy' an extra 40 Police officers for Manchester by finding £1.2 million to pay for extra Police to fight crime on our streets

- Make our city safer by tackling anti social behaviour, and provide more facilities for young people

- Reduce the number of agency staff and consultants to save £250,000.

- Spend an extra £3.6 million for local people in ward's to make communities safer and help provide improved local facilities for young people.

- Campaign for the abolition of the council tax and its replacement with a local income tax which will be fairer for residents and cheaper to collect

- Some of our parks and gardens have been neglected over the years, and need investment. We will put in 10% additional funding to improve lighting, gates, fencing and infrastructure as well as install new play equipment in parks and gardens across the city.

- Reduce the number of top councillors' allowances

- Reduce the level of subsidy to the Urbis museum by £1 million.

- We also propose to make Environment On-Call a free-phone number so that people contacting the Council will not be charged for this service.

- We will also carry out additional repairs to footpaths in the year.

- Revitalise our regeneration schemes by ensuring that there are truly community-based.

- Make Town Hall services more accessible by setting up a 24/7 one stop call centre and a network of access centres in local libraries

- Create more affordable housing to reduce housing waiting lists

- Encourage healthy and active lifestyles by providing free swim passes for under 16's and over 65's and promote healthy eating in our schools

- Improve and expand the recycling scheme across the city to include cardboard, plastic bottles, food and drink cans as well as improving recycling in the city's flats and maisonettes where people have little chance to recycle at present.

- Extend energy saving and fuel efficiency in the city to reduce carbon emissions and help cut global warming

Carefully costed programme

Our programme has been carefully costed by the City Treasurer to ensure that we can deliver our pledges and our programme to the people of Manchester. Set out as Appendix A to this document is a detailed break down of the costings for our programme in the coming financial year.

Your Comments and Feedback

We know that politicians do not always know best. We want to get your comments and feedback on our programme. Do you agree with the promises we have made? Would you like us to take into account other priorities? Would you like us to consider spending more certain areas? We want to hear from. You can contact our Shadow Finance Spokesperson (Cllr Marc Ramsbottom) direct on:

Phone: 0161 202 6603

E-mail: cllr.m.ramsbottom@manchester.gov.uk

Post: Cllr Marc Ramsbottom, FREEPOST, NWW5665A, Manchester, M40 6AL.

You can also comment via our website at:

www.manchester-libdems.org.uk

Additional Proposed Revenue Expenditure: Amount

Ward based priorities 3,600,000

Pride in the Parks Programme 1,000,000

Challenge Manchester 365 days 1,000,000

Education Attendance Initiative 1,000,000

Leisure -free swim vouchers 150,000

Restore school clothing grant 435,000

Environment On Call freephone 55,000

Extra Police officers 1,200,000

Total additional expenditure 8,440,000

Savings identified:

Reducing special responsibility allowances to Cllrs. 40,000

Reduced contribution to URBIS 1,000,000

Further reductions in agency staff and consultants fees 250,000

Unallocated contingency 250,000

Total Savings 1,540,000

Net increase in expenditure 6,900,000

Additional Use of balances:

Airport Development Reserve 1,750,000

Development Fund 1,000,000

Home Loan Fund 250,000

Insurance Fund 500,000

Service Improvement Fund 6,000,000

General Reserves 296,000

Total Additional Use of Reserves 9,796,000

Net reduction to revenue budget requirement (represents a nil increase in Manchester's Council Tax) 2,896,000