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Council agrees 4.99% tax rise and warns of cuts

Amy Holmes
Political Reporter
Reporting fromBBC News, Milton Keynes
Amy Holmes/BBC A picture of the outside of Milton Keynes City Council headquarters. The building is several stories high, with light brown bricks, with a covered entrance outside and a car park containung two vehicles.Amy Holmes/BBC
Milton Keynes council has to make savings of £20m in 25/26 and will also be raising council tax by 4.99% from April

A council leader has warned of "greater challenges ahead" after his authority agreed a council tax rise of 4.99% from April.

Labour's Pete Marland confirmed Milton Keynes City Council needed to impose the maximum increase possible without a referendum "just to get anywhere close to balancing the budget".

He said the authority would also have to make savings of £20m to balance its books and further cuts of "at least £32m" in the next three years.

Councillors also voted through plans to cut about 100 jobs, although some staff will be redeployed into new roles in adult social care or children's services.

Steve Hubbard/BBC A picture of a man who has short dark brown hair and a dark brown beard with white bits. He is wearing a black suit jacket with a dark pink tie.Steve Hubbard/BBC
Milton Keynes City Council leader Pete Marland warned of "greater challenges ahead" for the authority after it agreed its budget for 25/26

The council has made savings of more than £200m in the last 15 years with more than two-thirds of its budget now spent on care and support for vulnerable children.

The authority said it would need an extra £8m to pay for more residential placements for children with complex needs, and £6m to support vulnerable adults.

The number of children being taken into care or needing support has also added over £13m to its financial pressures.

The council, which has a budget of £286m, said it would continue weekly black bin collections but would introduce a charge for residents who want a second green bin.

Marland said a balanced budget was "only possible because of difficult decisions taken... due to a £10m overspend in children's services and the 6% uplift in government funding from the Labour government".

He said: "The cost of adult social care and children's care and temporary accommodation are rising and putting this council in a perilous financial position."

He added: "We will have to rethink how many of the services are delivered by this council and the authority will not look the same in five years time, regardless of who is in charge."

Liberal Democrat opposition leader Jane Carr said: "I have said many times we are in a crisis and we saw it coming.

"We could have predicted it but, nevertheless, the shock when it came has derailed even our new government, leaving many councils across the country with hopes for change dashed."

She added: "It is what comes next that really bothers me, for I fear it is already too late to save some of our services, particularly non-statutory."

The Conservatives, lead by group leader Shazna Muzammil, voted against the budget.

She claimed it "falls short of supporting our young, supporting our elderly and supporting our most vulnerable".

"The financial mismanagement on display is unacceptable and comes at a significant cost to our taxpayers," she said.

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