Anyone interested in the details of summer budget can find some useful briefings and information here:

BBC
Local Government Association
Liberal Democrats

As a Liberal Democrat, this is obviously a difficult day. Our party spent five years preventing the Conservatives from implementing policies that we felt were unfair, as well as introducing distinctive Lib Dem policies that made our recovery fairer and more sustainable.
Sadly, today’s budget shows the real difference that Liberal Democrats made in government, and are no longer able to make after May’s elections.

Welfare Cuts – The first of an excessive £12 billion in cuts which will fall disproportionately on the poorest. Also, limiting child tax credits and universal credit payments to only cover the first two children in a family sets a worrying precedent for any future Tory changes to child benefit.

Student Maintenance – We protected the maintenance grants for the poorest students and prevented any changes to this in the last parliament. Now the Tories are turning it into a loan and adding it onto students’ debt.

Green Energy – We created a system of subsidies for renewable energy production, funded by taxes on energy companies, to shift our economy away from our dangerous reliance on carbon. In government, we more than doubled the amount of energy the UK gets from renewable sources. Described by David Cameron as “green crap”, these taxes and subsidies are now being slashed. This is a tragically short-sighted cut that undermines the promising green energy foundations we have spent five years struggling to create.

Housing – The mass sell-off of housing association properties is a shameful example of short-term Tory electioneering at the expense of the social fabric of our communities. The plans for replacement of properties are threadbare and this whole plan has been ill thought-through. Now, these plans are being joined by the removal of housing benefit for Under-21s, which is going to make it even harder for young people and the less well off to find a home in our communities.

These are just four areas where the absence of Liberal Democrats in government will soon be felt. There will, no doubt, be more – such as protecting the Human Rights Act, fighting the Snooper’s Charter

Locally and nationally, we will continue to campaign for a fairer Britain. You can join us in this campaign by clicking here.

Join us today, and help us continue the fight to protect our environment, our civil liberties, our housing and welfare systems, and fairness in higher education.

No green bin emptying charges

York’s new Conservative-Liberal Democrat Executive has revealed plans to increase investment in frontline services by nearly £2million in its Emergency Budget.

 The emergency in-year budget scraps Labour’s plans to charge residents for all green bin collections and sees increased  investment in ward committees, recycling and support for small business. The budget puts an extra £250,000 annually into road improvements and sees funding to support local and rural bus services.

The Executive’s plans will be funded by reducing spending in areas such as trade union activity, use of consultants and social media. The budget sees money from contingency funds and underspends diverted into frontline services. In light of the financial challenges facing the council, a series of reviews will also be undertaken in housing, customer services as well as a bottom-up review of health and social care policy.

Incoming

Dringhouses Councillors have successfully opposed the introduction of green bin emptying charges

• Scrapping plans to charge for green bin emptying or reduce grey bin emptying frequencies
• Two extra green bin empties during winter
• £250,000 a year investment in highway maintenance
• More for street sweeping
• More for salting roads and footpaths in winter.
• More transparent decision making
• Improved customer interfaces
• Restoring the cuts to Community Centre funding
• Encouraging local small business to tender for Council contracts
• Increased support for local and rural bus services
• New Ward committee budgets which will be spent in line with local residents wishes

Outgoing:

Arts barge

• Funding for an “Arts Barge”
• The use of expensive “consultants”
• Subsidies for Trades Unions
• The trial bus service between the railway station and the hospital
• Funding for political propaganda

Overall the proposals are step in the right direction.

Cllr Keith Aspden, Lib Dem Group Leader and Deputy Leader of the Council, commented:

 “This emergency budget is about reversing some of the worst of Labour’s cuts and putting extra money immediately into the frontline services that matter to residents. We are scrapping plans to charge residents for all green bin collections as well as re-introducing winter collections. Extra funding will be put into road repairs and gritting, community centres, and helping small businesses. The budget also supports our plans to introduce cross-party decision making and devolve more power to ward committees. I am delighted that it also sees extra investment to help boost the attainment of pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds.”

Full details of the budget changes can be found by clicking here