At the city council meeting on Tuesday February 18th, councillors voted to pass the budget for 2025/26 and the Medium Term Financial Plan for 2025-2030. All Labour councillors voted in favour of the budget. Worcester Green Party councillors either voted against or abstained on the budget.
Karen Lewing, deputy leader for the Green group and councillor for Arboretum ward said: “At the eleventh hour, the Labour Government revealed in their final settlement that they were short-changing Worcester by £160,000 in compensation for increased employer’s National Insurance Contributions. We are proud to have worked collaboratively across parties to produce this budget, but the simple fact is that the Labour Government has blown a hole in our plans at the last minute. This means further unspecified cuts to services will be required, which I cannot support. Alongside the uncertainty of local government re-organisation it is very unfair for the Government to heap more threats to staff through continued underfunding.”
Many local authorities are in a similar position to Worcester, facing inadequate funding after 14 years of Conservative austerity, increasing costs due to inflation, rises in the minimum wage and increased employers National Insurance Contributions after the Labour Government’s budget in 2024. The Labour Government is not increasing the funding of Worcester City Council in real terms, continuing Conservative austerity.
Louis Stephen, leader of Worcester City Council Green group and councillor for Battenhall ward said: “The city council is legally required to pass a balanced budget every year. This year, Worcester Labour Party have balanced the budget using a ‘Financial Sustainability Plan’, which will be used to close the near £1,000,000 gap in the council’s finances. This will see one-off grants and job cuts, across all directorates of the council, used to close that gap in the year 2025/26.”
All parties have called for better funding of local government over the last year because they know the truth: we can only continue to deliver all the services our residents want and depend on with better funding. Unfortunately the Labour Government have continued to put the brakes on local growth by starving local government of resources. Residents should ask Labour councillors why they are willing to call this out at county council meetings, but not at city council meetings.