This is the official Decision Minute of Monday's Brent Cabinet meeting:
This report sets out draft budget proposals for 2017/18 and 2018/19. Subject to the results of consultation it is envisaged that these would then form the basis of the budget to be agreed at the Full Council meeting of February 2017.Additional documents:
- Appendix One - Previously Agreed Savings , item 6. HTM 2 KB
- Appendix Two - Summary of New Policy Proposals , item 6. HTM 2 KB
- Appendix Three - Detailed New Policy Options , item 6.
PDF 159 KB
Decision:
1. Cabinet noted the overall financial position.2. Cabinet endorsed the savings previously agreed, as set out in Appendix One.3. Cabinet agreed to consult on new draft policy options, as summarised in Appendix two and detailed in Appendix Three.4. Cabinet agreed to consult on council tax increases of 3.99% in each of 2017/18 and 2018/19.5. Cabinet endorsed the technical assumptions underpinning the budget as set out throughout the report.6. Cabinet authorised the drawdown of further capital resources to support delivery of the temporary accommodation reform plan, as set out on paragraph 6.7.
4 comments:
There is also in the Brent & Kilburn Times: Brent Council to overhaul debt collection policy to help claw back £60m owed to town hall.
Clearly, Cllr McClennan wants to punish people to poor to pay Council Tax while diminishing the resourcing of Brent's mental health services. Council Tax debt increases ill health, and her plans would clearly stigmatise individuals whereas Camden's belated proposal of reinstating 100% Council Tax Reduction for people on benefits too poor to pay any tax.
Unenforceable debt is not only a waste of public money, it is also getting everybody to pay for the torture of economically vulnerable people.
How can Brent Council build stronger communities when its leadership is clearly 'on another planet'?
Dude Swheatie of Kwug for Kilburn Unemployed Workers Grou
More on the Debt Collection proposals on a previous posting: http://wembleymatters.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/brent-plans-to-take-bailiff-service-in.html
Martin advised me yesterday by text message reply to my lunch time text message to him on this topic, that Brent & Kilburn Times receives too few comments on its website in relation to its news stories.
So after reading his reply tat evening, I placed basically the same comment as above, for their news story Town hall chief says Brent is in a ‘healthier place’ financially while revealing plans to hike council tax and dim street lights to save cash.
Clearly, the Brent & Kilburn Times is comparatively understaffed on the admin side for the number of stories they run, although I do appreciate that gathering news firsthand in a balanced way can be very time-consuming. And they may well have set days and times for dealing with the uploading of comments received in relation to their news stories.
I can now also add that the Department for Work & Pensions monitors media coverage on welfare reform. The one person operation that is Disability News Service uploads its news stories on Thursdays and yesterday revealed: DWP forced to release reports revealing its secret thoughts on the media.
We might wonder:
• What kind of monitoring LB Brent does regarding news coverage and commentaries on its operations?
• How much Council Tax money is spent on that monitoring?
• Is such monitoring what they call 'listening'?
Finally in this comment, I point out that while Brent is proposing a 3.99% increase in Council Tax with no restoration of 100% Council Tax Reduction, yesterday's Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group meeting discussed the further reduction on 7 November of the 'overall benefit cap'. Yahoo! searching 'overall benefit cap' I just got LB Brent's The ‘Overall Benefit Cap’ Toolkit as item #3 on the search finds — after DWP and Shelter output.
Dude Swheatie of Kwug
Re Green Party adoption of 'progressive alliance', what is 'progressive' about Brent Council under its current leadership?
Alan Wheatley
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