Greens refuse to vote for Labour’s ‘cruel and unrealistic’ budget
Bristol’s Green councillors voted against the Labour administration’s budget at a meeting of the full council this afternoon, after stating that projected savings to adult social care and children’s services in the Mayor’s final budget were ‘cruel and unrealistic’.
They also criticised Labour for their apparent acceptance and continuation of Conservative austerity, after the Mayor could not guarantee a Labour government would increase spending power for local councils.
Cllr Emma Edwards, Leader of the Green group, said, “We understand the difficulty in setting a balanced budget after years of Tory austerity. However, this Labour administration’s final budget, which they will not be around to see carried out, is full of cruel and unrealistic cuts to frontline services such as adult social care.
“On top of this, the Labour party nationally is failing to offer any actual alternative to austerity politics. Any potential new Labour government has not promised to increase funding for local Government, especially those led by administrations that have spent millions of pounds of taxpayer’s money on vanity projects chasing a failed model of economic growth.
“What then, is the actual difference between Labour and the Conservatives? Only the Green party is committed to implementing a wealth tax on the super-rich, and overhauling council tax and business rates which are both regressive. They charge lower income households and small businesses a much larger % of their income than wealthy households and large businesses.
“We were disappointed that much of this meeting was spent attacking the Greens, who sit in opposition, rather than focusing on the people of Bristol who will be affected by this Labour budget.”
On what Greens would do in Bristol, Cllr Edwards said, “There are major things we want to change for the better. The way we interact with the people of Bristol, the way we prioritise our basic services and looking after those who rely on our support.
“In May, Bristol will make big changes to the way it does things, under collaborative cross-party committees voted for by the people of our city. Councillors from all parties can and will work together to find solutions to the challenges this city faces. I hope that under this new system the budget setting process will be collaborative and in the best interests of the people of Bristol.
“While the Tories and Labour are very likely (due to their increasingly similar economic outlook, especially at national level) to do a back room deal to get this budget through, I also do not rule out the need for a future administration to amend it when all the information becomes available to all parties under the committee model.”
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