Hastings Councillors Agree Cuts And Council Tax Increase

Hastings Borough Council has signed off on plans to increase its share of council tax by 2.99 per cent — the maximum amount allowed without holding a local referendum.   

The increase was agreed on Wednesday (February 15), as councillors voted on the authority’s annual budget for 2023/24, which also included savings of more than £1.4m and a further £2.5m draw on reserves. 

The council tax increase will equate to an additional £8.42 on a band D household’s annual bill, coming on top of increases already agreed by East Sussex County Council and in the police and fire precepts.

Labour’s Simon Willis, lead councillor for finance, said:

“We’re increasing council tax by 2.99 per cent. That is a real terms cut in council tax of around seven per cent, so right off from the very start our sources of revenue are being reduced. We need to be crystal clear about that.”

He added:

“I think we’ve been open. I think we’ve been transparent. I think we’ve listened and taken on board the suggestions that people have made and come up with a budget which can promise us to pursue some of the shared ambitions we all have to make this town even more beautiful more thriving and more inclusive than it already is.”

Despite Labour holding a minority administration, the budget was passed as a result of the council’s Green Party group abstaining from the vote. This came after the Labour group accepted an amendment and withdrew a cut planned for community safety initiatives.

Conservatives, meanwhile, voted against the budget, arguing the proposals needed to be ‘more radical’ in order to avoid the council being issued a s.114 notice — effectively meaning the council becoming bankrupt.

Conservative group leader Andy Patmore said:

“Funding issues are way more complex than just simple headline figures. Our question is are the cuts and savings enough to stave off the council going into a s.114 notice. 

“Is there enough wiggle room in the figures to allow for, for example, more people becoming homeless. The war in Ukraine still rages on and the volatility of inflation and energy prices are still unpredictable. 

“The Conservative group do not think this budget is truly radical enough to allow for some of the variables and headwinds ahead.”

The agreed budget includes planned savings of more than £1.4m, the bulk of which the council hopes to find by reducing its spending on temporary accommodation by £1m. This work includes plans to purchase properties to use as temporary accommodation, which were agreed in a full council vote the week prior to the budget meeting.

The next largest individual saving, totalling £275,000, is expected to come from the council’s review and reduce programme. This will see some voluntary staff redundancies and the deletion of vacant posts from the council’s budgets.

Other savings include plans to reduce spending on the maintenance of decorative lights (cutting £40,000 from a £72,000 budget), cutting back financial support for Hastings Contemporary  (£5,000 from a £30,000 budget), stopping financial support for the town crier’s competition (£2,000) and reducing the running costs of Hastings Museum by £25,000.

The Labour group’s original budget proposals had also included plans to reduce funding for community safety initiatives by £5,000, but this was removed following an amendment from the council’s Green Party group.

Putting forward the amendment, Cllr Claire Carr said: 

“With a seven per cent rise in crime in the last year and sexual offences at their highest rate ever, now is not the time to be cutting this area of the budget. 

“We believe that cutting the community safety budget is a false economy, impacting on other services and budget areas and providing no actual saving, especially as this area of spending is often match funded. 

“This sum of money, which is small in relation to the epic task faced in housing, can actually have a significant impact on the ground.”

The council will also look to significantly reduce its spend on tourism marketing. This will include plans to save £15,000 by closing its tourist information centre at Sussex Coast College and saving £50,000 by withdrawing from the 1066 Country tourism campaign.

These savings proposals saw criticism from Conservatives, who argued it would harm the council’s reputation and threaten the town’s tourism income.

Conservatives also called on the Labour group to abandon plans to build a hotel on the Cornwallis Street Car park, saying it was unaffordable. Green Party councillors made similar criticisms of the project. 

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The meeting also saw the council vote on updating its corporate plan, which sets out the authority’s key areas of work. Several amendments had been made to this proposed update by the council’s Labour cabinet in the week before the meeting.

Several further amendments to this document had been put forward by the council’s Green group, either clarifying or asking for additional work to be included within the update. 

These included: the creation of a levy on car parking charges to fund active travel schemes; requiring developers to carry whole life cycle carbon assessments on their buildings; requiring the council to investigate using  zero carbon building methods on its own land; and committing to working with third sector organisations on securing age-friendly status from the World Health Organisation. 

All of these amendments were accepted by the Labour administration and voted through (with Conservatives voting against and Greens abstaining).