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Council 'needs every extra pound' from tax hike

Vikki Irwin
BBC political reporter, Suffolk
Vikki Irwin/BBC A glass fronted building which is the headquarters of Suffolk County Council. It reads Suffolk County Council in large blue writing Vikki Irwin/BBC
More than 77% of the council's £803m budget would be spent on social care and public health, under the draft package

Suffolk County Council's cabinet members have agreed to raise its share of tax on residents by the maximum amount of 4.99%.

The senior Conservative councillors unanimously agreed on a £803m budget plan for 2025-26 at a meeting on Tuesday.

Richard Smith, the cabinet member for finance, said the local authority needed "every extra pound the rise would bring in".

The increase in its council tax bill means the average band B property will pay £60.97 more from 1 April.

Vikki Irwin/BBC A man is in an office smiling at the camera and is wearing a suit and striped red and white shirt, as well as a red patterned tie.Vikki Irwin/BBC
Richard Smith said the rise in National Insurance contributions was the council's "largest future risk"

Smith told the meeting at Endeavour House in Ipswich that the net expenditure for the budget - which was for the 2025-26 financial year - was £803m.

He said more than 77% of that money would be spent on social care and public health.

"That leaves less than 23% for everything else we have to do," he said.

"We can spend nowhere near enough to keep our highways up to the standard we would all wish to see."

He cautioned about the impact of the increase in National Insurance contributions (NIC) which were announced in the government budget in October.

The NIC costs were "a large future risk" for the council, he said, especially when factoring in contractors who provided social care.

"By no means do we have the money to cover in full the NI costs for our contractors," Smith added.

'Broken social care'

In December, the Labour government announced how much it was providing to local authorities.

Local Government Minister Jim McMahon said £69bn was being made available to councils, which represented a 3.5% "real terms increase" in spending power.

Earlier this month when the Conservative administration in Suffolk revealed its budget plans, the leader of the opposition said it was "absolutely no surprise".

Andrew Stringer, who is leader of the Green, Liberal Democrat and Independent Group, said: "We have a broken social care model which no government has been able to fix and education funding nowhere near matches the costs involved."

The draft budget will still need to be debated and voted on at a full council meeting on 13 February.

The tax increase of 4.99% is the maximum amount that councils - ones which have a social care remit - are permitted by central government to impose.

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