Brighton and Hove politicians wrangle over social services budget

Social services chiefs in Brighton and Hove wrangled over the budget for the coming year at a meeting this afternoon (Monday 20 January).

Labour and Conservative councillors attacked the Green administration running Brighton and Hove City Council for a lack of financial transparency.

Councillor Rob Jarrett, chairman of the Adult Care and Health Committee, offered to make more information available in future.

Councillor Rob Jarrett

And the Green councillor defended proposals to put up council tax by 4.75 per cent to protect services, especially those for vulnerable adults.

Former council leader Mary Mears said at a meeting of the committee: “Your administration says that it needs to put council tax up 4.75 per cent and hold a referendum.”

“One of the issues is around adult social care and care.

Councillor Mears, a Conservative, said: “If you wanted the residents to understand the issues around adult social care, you should have put a much more detailed budget in these papers for us to see.”

Complaining about being able to see only one month’s figures, Councillor Anne Meadows, for Labour, said: “We don’t want just a snapshot. We want full accounts.

“This is a slap in the face for us. It’s as though you’re saying we are not worth talking to. We cannot make budget decisions in public.

Councillor Mears added: “We are an executive committee. We have reports before us to make decisions about how money is spent.

“How can we make those decisions if we don’t have an overview of the budget?”

Councillor Jarrett said: “We have a pre-meeting at which you can ask for that information.”

Councillor Mears said: “I asked for exactly that information last year and you promised it would be given to us.”

Councillor Jarrett said: “If I haven’t followed through on a commitment that I gave, I apologise.

“I have no desire to withhold any information from this committee. I act on the advice of officers.”

Councillor Geoffrey Bowden, a Green member of the committee, said: “If opposition members keep their mouths shut in pre-meets, they have only themselves to blame.

Councillor Jarrett told Councillor Mears during a heated exchange: “I should have thought that the need for money stared out of you from every page.

“There have been no radical changes in adult care and health since your administration.

“Continued value-for-money savings have been made. The trajectories for what we spend are down. But there are increased service pressures.”

And fellow Green, Councillor Ollie Sykes, said: “It’s absolutely self-evident in these papers that there’s a need for this rise (in council tax).

“You have to look at your own party (in government) for responsibility for where we are now.”