Bath & North East Somerset Council has voted to increase council tax by the maximum amount possible as it battles a “significant and unpredictable” bill for social care.
The Guildhall in Bath
From April, council tax bills in the area will go up by 4.99%, equivalent to £86.64 per year for a typical band D property.
But council cabinet member for resources Mark Elliott (Lansdown, Liberal Democrats) insisted, as he presented the budget plans to the council on 25th February: “Many councils and residents of other authorities would be extremely envious of our position.
“We have healthy reserves, we are not at any significant risk of finding ourselves in financial difficulty. We are not, as other councils are, unable to balance the books or making swingeing cuts to services.
“We are not having to apply to central government for permission to make exceptional council tax rises.”
The 4.99% increase is the maximum possible without special permission from the government or a local referendum.
2.99 percentage points of the rise will be for general use, while two percentage points of the rise will be ringfenced for spending on adult social care and appear on council tax bills as the “Adult Social Care Precept.”
The precept was introduced in recent years to address the soaring social care costs that councils are facing.
Bath & North East Somerset Council’s budget increases its funding for social care by £6.5 million.
The council’s cabinet member for adult services, Councillor Alison Born (Widcombe & Lyncombe, Liberal Democrats), warned the area had an ageing population, creating more demand for adult social care at a time of rising costs.
She said: “Central government cannot continue to expect local authorities to manage the increasing costs of adult social care, with the burden of responsibility falling on council taxpayers and the individuals who fund their own care.”
Councillor Elliott added that the market system for children’s services was “truly broken” and providers could charge hundreds of thousands of pounds for each care package for the area’s most vulnerable children.
He said: “You don’t need many children to come into the system at that level unexpectedly, for the budget to be completely thrown out of kilter.”
The council is planning to build a new special school and alternate provision school on the site of Culverhay to care for more children in the area, reducing spending on costly out-of-area provision.
But Councillor Elliott said the council was still waiting for the new Labour government to confirm the funding, which had been promised under the Conservatives.
The budget included cuts, savings, and new charges and income to make up a £14 million budget gap driven by the “extreme” pressure, which Mr Elliott said was particularly in children’s services.
But Councillor Robin Moss (Westfield, Labour), who leads the opposition Labour group on the council, said the planned budget was “more of the same”.
He added that the council had overspent on social care every quarter last year. Although he agreed this was happening at councils across the country, he said there was a “disappointing” lack of ability to predict these pressures.
Councillor Moss said: “Einstein commented about the wisdom about repeating the same actions and expecting a different outcome.
“The Labour group can have no confidence, unfortunately, that these budget proposals are going to make any different outcome to the previous year, so we will not be supporting them.”
Councillor Elliott said the council was making the changes needed to address social care pressures but said: “It takes time.”
He added: “Things like the Labour central government holding up the decision to release the funding for our new schools is making it more difficult.”
Leader of the Independent group, Councillor Shaun Hughes (Midsomer Norton North), said the group “fully supports” the spending on social care but warned against proposals to delay £210,000 of investment into car parks until next year, warning that the council’s own reports identified impacts on safety.
He said: “Delaying investment into a car park that now charges our residents risks harming our economy by reducing trade and discouraging footfall.”
But Councillorr Elliott said that the spending would add “unfunded risk” to the budget. The amendment was voted down, with the Liberal Democrat group, who have a majority on the council, all voting against it.
A raft of amendments from the Greens which included investments in public toilets, extending free bus travel for disabled people to before 9am, introducing an RPZ in Green-controlled Lambridge, and retracting paper parking permits for councillors was also voted down, with only the three Green councillors voting in favour.
The 2025/26 budget as put forward by the Liberal Democrat administration was passed unamended by 36 votes to eight.
Only members of the Liberal Democrat group voted in favour, with the Labour group and Conservative Tim Warren (Midsomer Norton Redfield) voting against. Meanwhile, the Greens, Independents, and newly elected independent Chris Warren (Saltford), who does not sit as part of the Independents group, abstained.
Commenting after the meeting, Councillor Elliott said: “Pressures from social care costs are very significant and unpredictable.
“However, I’m proud of the fact that this administration cares deeply about social care and will make sure the funding is in place to meet the needs of adults and children who desperately need support.”
“Despite these challenges, we have managed to carve out some funding for priorities we set in our manifesto back in 2023, such as ‘clean and green’ funding to tackle weeds, graffiti and litter and improving road safety with speed indicator signage and school street schemes.”
But Green group leader Councillor Joanna Wright (Lambridge, Green) said: “The budget is full of piecemeal fixes that fail to address long-term challenges, such as improving public transport, creating liveable neighbourhoods, or ensuring sustainable development.
“Without bold action now, we’ll continue to see ad hoc, unsustainable solutions that only delay the inevitable.”
John Wimperis, Local Democracy Reporter
