The Ribble Valley Borough Council has frozen the Council tax for 8 years out of the last 12 , recognising that the public after the pandemic will in some cases be suffering unemployment and hardship and businesses will need to recover.
At the Full Budget Council Meeting Ribble Valley Conservatives Group’s proposed to freeze the borough Council Tax which was approved.
Council Leader Stephen Atkinson said ‘Despite all the extra work, we have by prudent planning been able to set a budget for next year that maintains current levels of service and you may rest assured that your Council will be there to support both residents and businesses in the Ribble Valley with the post pandemic recovery.
''This exemplary record of prudent financial planning means that Ribble Valley Borough Council has still by far the lowest rate of council tax in Lancashire as well as in the North West and the North of England and the 30th lowest out of 188 councils nationally.''
Despite the years of austerity, the Conservatives administration has maintained all services at high levels without staff redundancies and is now one of only two authorities in Lancashire to provide a nationally recognised weekly 3 stream waste collection service.
During the current Covid crisis the Council has successfully distributed £27 million in support grants to Ribble Valley businesses and the self-employed, created a Community Hub to support vulnerable residents established a community based test and trace system and cooperated with the NHS on the delivery of the vaccination programme.
At the Full Council Budget setting meeting the Liberals Democrats, in an proposed amendment to the budget, outlined a series of additional spending commitments for the current fiscal year totalling £1million including: setting up a fund to provide assistance for business, setting up a fund to help families in hardship and setting up a fund to deal with carbon reduction measures. Due to to the lateness of the delivery of this proposal on the day of the budget debate, the Conservatives felt there was insufficient time to give proper consideration to the proposal. In addition the government's budget was to be announced on the 3rd March the day after the Council debate, so it was felt appropriate to wait for the Chancellors proposals to deal with these issues, including business rates, before allocating resources.
At the time of the Council budget debate, RVBC still had £1.067,000 of unallocated funds to assist local businesses in the ARG Fund and was waiting for a report from its own Climate Change Working Group as to the way forward in dealing with carbon reduction. The Conservative Group however did accept a proposal that funding for the re-launch of the Ribble Valley economy in the post-Covid environment would become a standing line-item in the Budget Working Group. Going forward the Budget Working Group will identify a series of additional measures to run alongside Ribble Valley existing Economic Plan, which has already been adopted by Full Council, including studying what impact the Budget proposals mean for the Ribble Valley and how best to take advantage of them.
The measures announced in the Budget by the Chancellor Rishi Sunak justified the Conservative Group’s caution. A number of measures were announced which will more than deliver on and go far beyond the Liber Democrat proposals which will be of huge benefit to Ribble Valley Council Tax Payers and Local Business Owners and Business Rates Payers.
These include:
Extending furlough until the end of September
Two further grants for the self-employed – and bringing in 19/20 starters
Extending Universal Credit and Working Tax Credits by six months
More money for apprenticeships and traineeships
A brand new 95 per cent mortgage guarantee for prospective homebuyers
Keeping the Conservative manifesto pledge with NO increases to income tax, NICs or VAT
Freezing alcohol duty and fuel duty
Restart grants of up to £18,000 to get our retail, hospitality, leisure and personal care businesses going again
Business rates holiday extended for three months, before tapering for another nine
Extending the VAT cut to 5 per cent for a further six months, before tapering for another six months
New Recovery Loans to replace our existing loan schemes
£700 million for arts, culture and sports
An unprecedented Super Deduction on capital investment for businesses – a £25 billion tax cut
Future Fund Breakthrough to fund high growth companies, and ambitious reforms to IPO listings
Launching our £150 million Community Ownership
Help to Grow to boost the productivity of our small businesses
Green initiatives: a new retail bond and new carbon markets
