On Monday, March 4, Sutton Council passed a balanced budget that includes the much-awaited increase in council tax.
In an effort to deliver pricey mandated services, councils around the nation have implemented increases similar to this one.
A Band D household will see a weekly increase of £1.55 due to the 4.99 percent increase.
The total planned B and D Council Tax charge for a Sutton property will now be £2,166.18 for 2024–2025 as opposed to £2,048.38 in 2023–2024, per Council papers.
The Council stressed that increasing this tax was a ‘difficult’ but essential decision to make to ensure that it met its legal obligation to submit a balanced budget.
Sutton Council leader Ruth Dombey told the chamber: “We now live in a world where vital services for the elderly, people with disabilities and children with special needs are funded by council tax.
£Not a tax based on your ability to pay, but rather the value of your home 30 years ago.”
While Sutton Council is in a better financial shape than some of its immediate neighbours, councillors across the house acknowledged that this balanced budget would only ‘see them through the next year’ and that more funding was needed from Central government.
Sutton’s Conservative opposition, who abstained from the vote, raised concerns that the Council was making ‘unusual’ decisions regarding SEND funding to balance the budget.
“Although I acknowledge there are issues with local government funding, I think this council should be prioritising vulnerable residents, like children with SEND,” Cllr. Tom Drummond said in an interview with the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS). “This does not seem to be the case, though, as evidenced by the Sutton Parents Carers submission to Council, which shows that there appears to be a lack of leadership in this area.”
For the South London Council, health and education plans (EHCP) are an especially costly and divisive topic.
EHCPs are customised legal documents that list a child or young person’s needs in terms of social, health, and educational services.
Local authorities are legally obligated to attend to the requirements of the young person after an EHCP is prepared.
It was discovered back in 2022 that Sutton had the greatest national rejection percentage for EHCP assessments of youngsters.
Due to this record, which is also twice the London norm, Sutton has fought the parents of SEND children in several drawn-out court cases.
Despite spending nearly £200,000 on legal bills, fellow Conservative councillor Mike Dwyer informed the chamber on Monday that the government had lost every appeal at the SEND list tribunal.
As a result, Dwyer declared, “It would be no exaggeration to say that Sutton has been a national disgrace in this area.”
Dwyer claims that the Council additionally had to deplete the funds in the reserves of its two fully owned trading enterprises to the extent of of £300,000 apiece, so as to maintain fiscal equilibrium.
These businesses include Cognus, which provides SEND education for the Council, and Encompass, which offers emergency housing assistance.
Beddington’s three independent representatives, including Councillor Tim Foster, expressed Dwyer’s apprehension over the choice to accept funds from local authority trading companies (LATC).
“It seems counter-intuitive to draw money back from Cognus, since part of the reported financial pressures was an increase in high needs block, the cost of SEND transport, and the individual unit cost of EHCPs,” he stated.
“When Cognus was first established in 2016, it was said that any excess would be put back into educational programmes for the children and youth of Sutton.
“In actuality, these LATCs serve as buffers between the expectations of the residents and the administration of the Council.”
This decision “leads to schools having less money available to provide SEN support to children who need it,” a council member claims. while driving even more parents towards EHCP and the inevitable stress of taking legal action to protect the rights of their children.”
“It begs the question as to whether the council would be able to achieve a balanced budget were it not for these very unusual transfers of funds from budgets out of the Council’s direct control,” Dwyer said to the chamber as he concluded his assessment of the Council’s SEND policy.
“Despite a track record of managing our finances very carefully over many years, like many other councils, we now find ourselves having to make really difficult choices,” said Councillor Dombey in response to a request for comment. Options that none of us wish to be forced to choose.
It’s especially challenging because, in the wake of COVID, the requirements of those in need of our assistance have grown more complex, demand for our services is rising daily, and our budget is not keeping up with this.
Our goal is to be a kind, considerate council that offers our citizens excellent services.
“In order to continue supporting our vulnerable adults and children, we have had to reduce the services that benefit everyone due to the startling government’s failure to adequately fund local authorities.” These decisions shouldn’t have to be made by us. It’s just not right.
The amount of additional funding that the government gives local authorities is a topic of frequent discussion. These numbers take into account the supposition that we will impose the highest possible council tax on our citizens. We are therefore forced, like many other councils around the nation, to propose raising the council tax.
This implies that starting in April, the average Band D property will require its residents to pay £1.55 more in council tax each week. This will enable us to continue providing for the needs of those who most need our assistance as well as help pay for the services that benefit all of us, such as libraries, parks, and open spaces.
“We are aware that a large number of people are having difficulty paying for their daily needs. However, we have very little option until the government fulfils its promise to reform social care and the discriminatory thirty-year-old council tax structure is changed.
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