‘We mustn’t abandon the elderly and disabled’

Like many of us, I have a severely disabled parent. Luckily, at the moment at least, we are able to look after him ourselves without the support of an outside carer.

But for many in Bristol, additional care is required, maybe in the form of an outside carer or a care home. I expect you have an elderly or maybe not particularly elderly friend or relative, a friend with disabilities or perhaps a friend that has needed help with drug misuse.

If so, you have probably also noticed that council services and in particularly Adult Social care services are under pressure. The reason for this is two-part. Central government controls the local authority funding and the grants that the council gets. And that funding is being cut by drastic amounts.

In 2009/2010 the grant that Bristol City Council received was £186.7m. This year Bristol City Council will receive £60.4m. Looking ahead to 2019/2020, that grant will be £18.3m. That’s a cut of 75 per cent over 10 years.

At the same time, we have an aging population and an increasing population in Bristol. As a result of the Care Act 2014, local councils are responsible for more care than previously and the care costs are going up.

This financial year, Bristol City Council expects to be roughly £4m over budget for adult social care. The shortfall is predicted to be £3.5m, £3.8m, £4.3m and £4.7m in future years up to 2019/2020.

So what can we do about this? Cutting adult social care provision isn’t an option, as this is literally a life and death situation. Council tax itself is capped to a two per cent increase year-on-year without holding an expensive referendum, but the central Conservative government knows that Local councils are decimated, that they cannot cut crucial services anymore.

In his most recent budget, George Osborne included the option to add a two per cent Adult Social Care precept onto Council Tax. This cleverly palms off responsibility onto local authorities and local council tax payers.

That is why, even though Greens do not support council tax itself as a fair form of taxation, we have this week submitted a budget amendment to the Mayor’s budget for a 1.95 per cent increase to council tax – on top of the two per cent that George Ferguson has already included in his budget.

We don’t do this gladly as many people in Bristol struggle to pay their council tax and so we are also determined to ensure that the council tax reduction scheme is protected, thus helping those on the lowest incomes. However, we also have no other option if we wish to protect what is left of our social care services.

Our 1.95 per cent increase through the Adult Social Care precept would mean an increase of 41p a week for the most commonly held home in Bristol (council tax band B). Together with the two per cent already agreed in the mayor’s draft budget, this will mean an overall increase of 84p per week for the average Bristolian, with those least able to afford an increase to continue to be protected by the council tax reduction scheme.

We Greens know first-hand the hardships caused by decimated public services and also the resulting tax rises. We do not believe that council tax payers should pay the bill for Conservative Government cuts.

We also understand that raising taxes is never a popular move and we also know that other politicians are fearful of suggesting such a move in an election year.

But we also know that given the situation as it is, sharing the responsibly of care to the vulnerable members of our society is the right and the fair thing to do. We must not abandon the elderly and the disabled, those needing rehabilitation and those that require community nursing. To do so would be grossly immoral.

That is why the Greens will be bringing forward this amendment and we urge and challenge the other political parties to be brave and to support it in February.

This is too important a situation to play political games with and we owe our elderly and vulnerable friends and family more than that.