Mayoral council tax bill to treble as leaders insist price worth paying to improve buses

The Mayoral share of the council tax bill will treble this year, which will see people in a Band D household pay £24 more a year.

Dr Nik Johnson, the Mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, said the increase was a price worth paying to fund new bus services and ensure people in the region were not ‘left behind’.

The increase was supported by a majority of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority board members.

However, the leader of East Cambridgeshire District Council, Councillor Anna Bailey, said she could not support the increase and argued the Combined Authority should try to ‘live within its means’.

The Mayoral precept was added to people’s council tax bills for the first time last year, which saw people in Band D households pay £12 towards the Combined Authority.

The tax request was introduced after the authority took on the responsibility of funding a number of bus services that had been due to be cut the year before.

The Combined Authority’s share of the council tax bill is now due to increase to £36 a year for a Band D household, which will be a £24 increase.

The Mayor said the money raised from the increased tax will be spent on a combination of improving and creating new bus services across the county.

He also highlighted the authority’s plans to cut bus fares for under 25s to just £1.

At a meeting of the Combined Authority’s board this week (January 31), he said: “The additional precept will mean we can offer more routes and more frequent services serving far more people more conveniently than is currently the case.

“What is more, as you aware, in our general budget we are also offering a huge reduction in the price of travel for everyone under the age of 25 with bus fares cut in half to just £1.

“I am pleased to say that these proposals enjoy popular support, the 700 plus bus survey responses is evidence of our region's need, demand and indeed desire for more and better services, getting people to and from where they want to go.

“I am not in any way indifferent to the long standing financial challenges which many of our residents find themselves wrestling with on a daily basis.

“My argument is simply that the collective benefits of a better bus network vastly outweigh the costs to households, with less than 10p a day on average releasing £11million of public transport value, unclogging our roads, cleaning up our air, and massively increasing better access to the wealth of social and economic opportunities that our region presents.

“I think that is a price worth paying and I do not want to leave anyone behind.”

Most of the representatives of councils in the county said they supported the increase to improve bus services, but said they recognised the concerns some people would have about the rise.

Councillor Bridget Smith, leader of South Cambridgeshire District Council, said: “This was debated by my group at length.

“The consensus was supportive of the Mayoral precept as in South Cambridgeshire, like many other parts of Cambridgeshire, we have a really poor transport system.

“We know this drives inequality and inequality drives poverty. In a time of the cost of living crisis, public transport is more important than ever.

“We have to make sure all residents have ready and affordable access to education, training and leisure.”

Councillor Lucy Nethsingha, leader of Cambridgeshire County Council, said the Combined Authority was in the “unusual position” of being able to discuss expanding bus services.

She said: “If you look across England, almost everywhere people, particularly in rural areas, are facing a reduction in their bus service.

“Obviously nothing is free, we also know that costs are going up across the board for families and for government; I know just how difficult this year's budget round has been at the county council.

“Everybody is under pressure trying to maintain things they are doing, let alone expanding them, it is really hard.

“One thing different about this precept is it is going to deliver an improvement for our residents rather than just trying to stop things getting worse.”

Councillor Mohammed Farooq, leader of Peterborough City Council, said the cost of the increase for many people would be the equivalent of four to five cups of coffee a year.

He said people “sacrificing” those cups of coffee would enable the bus improvements, which he said were particularly needed by vulnerable people.

Cllr Farooq said he believed the “benefits outweigh the burden it brings to residents” and said he therefore supported the increase.

However, Councillor Anna Bailey, leader of East Cambridgeshire District Council, said she could not support the increase.

She said: “My view is devolution was and should be about receiving funding and powers from government, not a new excuse to tax local people.

“We are given significant funds and I feel we should attempt to live within our means.”

Cllr Bailey said she believed the Combined Authority was in the position of considering the council tax increase to fund bus services, because it had not received funding a few years ago when other authorities had been given “tens-of-millions-of-pounds”.

She said: “I cannot support the vision of buses being the answer for future transport. We need something much more radical for our 21st century area, this is not the right answer and taxing people to deliver it is not the answer.”

The Mayor said the Combined Authority was not just about buses, but said he wanted to see the area “get the basics right”.

Cllr Nethsingha said the Combined Authority was one of the many authorities who bid for the transport funding mentioned by Cllr Bailey who were not successful. She said the authority did receive some funding in the second round.

The Mayoral precept increase and the Combined Authority budget were both approved by a majority of the board members.