Bromley Labour unveils 2024/5 alternative budget

Share on facebook
Share on twitter
Share on linkedin
Share on whatsapp
Share on email

At it’s Budget-setting meeting on 26th February, Bromley’s Conservative-run Council announced that it plans to introduce the maximum Council Tax increase possible, 4.99%, without having to trigger a local referendum

Bromley Labour introduced our alternative budget, proving that it’s possible to both improve services and make savings in the long term

Here are the key points from Labour’s plan for a Better Bromley:

Labour is ambitious for Bromley

  • We’d invest to improve key services – and save millions of pounds in the process
  • We’d offer our residents support through the cost-of-living crisis
  • And we’d protect Bromley’s vital charities from unaffordable rent hikes

Labour: Offering better services and sound finances

  • We’d build an extra 320 social rental homes instead of selling the Civic Centre site in Bromley, generating a rental incoming and reducing the multi-million pound bill the Council faces each year to provide temporary accommodation for those who have become homeless in our borough
  • We’d provide in-borough care for more residents to grow up and grow old – protecting taxpayers from the rising cost of private care placements
  • We’d transform Bromley’s youth centres with support from local charities, who would be better able to serve residents under Labour’s plans
  • And, we’d embarking in making over £4.5 million by 2028 by avoiding expensive providers of council services

Labour: Providing cost of living support when it’s needed

  • We’d freeze Council Tax for Bands A-C
  • We’d provide full Council Tax support for care leavers
  • And, we’d raise the Council’s minimum pay to the London Living Wage (£13.15 per hour), and provide an extra £500 pay award to the lowest paid staff in the cost-of-living crisis

Labour: Supporting Bromley’s vital charities

  • We’d reverse the Conservative council’s plan for massive, unfair, unaffordable council-imposed rent hikes on over 100 local charities
  • And, we’d offer a social rent rate to those charities, capping rent rises to inflation for the next two years, and a 40% discount from market rents from 2026.