Agenda item

Chancellor’s Budget 2016-17

10.1

It was moved by Councillor Cate McDonald, seconded by Councillor Mary Lea, that this Council:-

(a)      expresses its dismay at the incompetence and unfairness of the Chancellor George Osborne’s 2016/17 Budget, in particular the decision to cut £4.4bn from disability benefits which would have left 370,000 disabled people £3,500 a year worse off;

(b)      believes the decision to cut Personal Independence Payments for disabled people and those with chronic health problems to fund lower rates of Capital Gains Tax for the wealthiest is indicative of the Conservatives’ warped priorities and shows ‘compassionate conservatism’ to be nothing more than empty rhetoric;

(c)      welcomes the Chancellor’s u-turn on this decision, but believes he should apologise for the fear and worry his plans have caused many thousands of disabled people;

(d)      notes analysis from the Institute for Fiscal Studies which shows that over 80p in every £1 spent on raising thresholds and allowances in this budget will go to the top half of households and more than 30p will go to the UK’s richest 10%, and is disappointed that the Government appear to be continuing the Conservative/Lib Dem coalition government’s policy of balancing the budget on the backs of the poorest;

(e)      notes findings from The Centre for Welfare Reform that disabled people bore 29% of all cuts under the coalition government, despite accounting for just 8% of the population; and

(f)       recalls cuts implemented under the coalition government which impacted disproportionately on the most vulnerable in society, including:

(i)       the bedroom tax - two thirds of the tenants hit by this are from households that contain someone who has a disability;

(ii)      cutting social care by £3.5bn, leading to a situation in which two out of five disabled people in this country are now unable to eat, wash, dress or get out of the house due to underfunded services in their area;

(iii)      cutting Remploy – a scheme that helped disabled people into work;

(iv)     cutting Working Tax Credits for low-paid workers;

(v)      overseeing a huge increase in punitive benefit sanctions; and

(vi)     scrapping Council Tax Benefit.

10.2

Whereupon, it was moved by Councillor Steve Ayris, seconded by Councillor Penny Baker, as an amendment, that the Motion now submitted be amended by:-

1.       the deletion of all the words after “10%” in paragraph (d); and

2.       the deletion of paragraphs (e) and (f) and the addition of new paragraphs (e) to (j) as follows:-

(e)      believes that cuts such as these would not have happened with the Liberal Democrats in Government and notes former Deputy Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. Nick Clegg MP’s comments that he had blocked similar measures whilst in Coalition;

(f)       notes further research by the IFS in their report ‘Are we 'all in this together'?’ which says that “there has been a considerable equalisation of the income distribution in the years since the recession ….. On some measures, inequality is now at a 25 year low”;

(g)      notes that the same report projects that ‘we should expect much of the recent fall in inequality to be undone over the next five years,’ and recognises that this shows clear water between the previous Coalition Government’s policies and the current Government’s;

(h)      believes that this Administration and the Labour Party have shown outstanding hypocrisy in deploring the ‘Bedroom Tax’, given the fact that a Labour Government introduced a similar policy - the ‘Local Housing Allowance’ - in 2008, which was a restriction on Housing Benefit for tenants of private landlords “to provide an incentive for those on Housing Benefit to find cheaper accommodation.”;

(i)       believes that many of the problems with social housing today is a direct result of the previous Labour Government’s failure to build enough homes to be available for social rent, meaning many families have to live in overcrowded homes and there aren’t smaller homes available for social tenants who have surplus rooms to move into; and

(j)       notes the parliamentary Labour Party’s abstention on the Work and Welfare Bill and that Labour Lords failed to back a fatal motion tabled by the Liberal Democrat Lords that would have killed the Bill altogether, shows the Labour Party’s indifference to welfare cuts and believes that this Administration are in no position to criticise the Liberal Democrats.

10.3

On being put to the vote, the amendment was negatived.

10.4

The original Motion was then put to the vote and carried, as follows:-

RESOLVED: That this Council:-

(a)      expresses its dismay at the incompetence and unfairness of the Chancellor George Osborne’s 2016/17 Budget, in particular the decision to cut £4.4bn from disability benefits which would have left 370,000 disabled people £3,500 a year worse off;

(b)      believes the decision to cut Personal Independence Payments for disabled people and those with chronic health problems to fund lower rates of Capital Gains Tax for the wealthiest is indicative of the Conservatives’ warped priorities and shows ‘compassionate conservatism’ to be nothing more than empty rhetoric;

(c)      welcomes the Chancellor’s u-turn on this decision, but believes he should apologise for the fear and worry his plans have caused many thousands of disabled people;

(d)      notes analysis from the Institute for Fiscal Studies which shows that over 80p in every £1 spent on raising thresholds and allowances in this budget will go to the top half of households and more than 30p will go to the UK’s richest 10%, and is disappointed that the Government appear to be continuing the Conservative/Lib Dem coalition government’s policy of balancing the budget on the backs of the poorest;

(e)      notes findings from The Centre for Welfare Reform that disabled people bore 29% of all cuts under the coalition government, despite accounting for just 8% of the population; and

(f)       recalls cuts implemented under the coalition government which impacted disproportionately on the most vulnerable in society, including:

(i)      the bedroom tax - two thirds of the tenants hit by this are from households that contain someone who has a disability;

(ii)     cutting social care by £3.5bn, leading to a situation in which two out of five disabled people in this country are now unable to eat, wash, dress or get out of the house due to underfunded services in their area;

(iii)     cutting Remploy – a scheme that helped disabled people into work;

(iv)    cutting Working Tax Credits for low-paid workers;

(v)     overseeing a huge increase in punitive benefit sanctions; and

(vi)    scrapping Council Tax Benefit.

10.4.1

(NOTE: Councillors Richard Shaw, Rob Frost, Joe Otten, Colin Ross, Martin Smith, Penny Baker, Roger Davison, Shaffaq Mohammed, Sue Alston, Andrew Sangar, Cliff Woodcraft, Ian Auckland, Steve Ayris, Denise Reaney and David Baker voted for paragraphs (a) to (c) and against paragraphs (d) to (f) of the substantive motion, and asked for this to be recorded.)