An East London council has passed its budget, which includes £16 million worth of savings and a £76 council tax increase for the average household. Barking and Dagenham Council has had to make cuts to some services, including reducing its street cleansing services, reviewing its enforcement service as well as introducing a charge of £3 per day for motorcycle parking.
During a full council meeting on Wednesday evening (26 February), members were voting for the budget and the Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) for the next three years.
Council Leader Dominic Twomey told the chamber: “I am hugely proud to present the budget with a new Labour government, alongside three new local Labour MPs. We are as one together in standing up for working people in this borough but clearly, we face some obvious and not insignificant challenges.”
He added: “The context of this year’s budget as you all know is ongoing pressure – budgets up, costs up, in-work poverty up, out-of-work poverty up, homelessness up, rents up, mortgages up, people waiting to be seen in trolleys in A&E up and so it goes on and on.
“This is years of stagnation, a need to grow the economy from a standing start and a cost of living crisis that keeps on giving or in fact keeps on taking, I should say – the list goes on and on.”
The borough has some of the highest levels of deprivation in London, with the council stating there is a growing demand for services as residents continue to face hardship with the cost of living crisis. According to the council, for every £10 the authority has, around £7 is spent on adult and children’s social care. Additionally the borough has welcomed 26,000 more people when compared to 10 years ago, while one in four residents are under 16 This year’s budget (2025/26) includes a 4.99 per cent council tax increase – consisting of a 2% adult social care precept and the council’s own 2.99 per cent element.
This means the level of council tax for a Barking And Dagenham property has increased from £1,531.35 to £1,607.76 – which is a £76.41 increase. The council was previously looking at plans to stop funding its element of the borough’s domestic abuse victim and survivor support service for 2025/26, however this has now been scrapped after concerns were raised by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee.
Cllr Andrew Achilleos, Deputy Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee, thanked council officers for reversing the proposal. Cllr Achilleos said: “Obviously we’ve got one of the highest levels of domestic abuse in London and I think it’s a very, very positive decision actually to not reduce those services. I think the people who rely on those services will be very, very grateful.”
Commenting on the council tax increase, the borough’s only Independent cllr, Lynda Rice, said: “I understand about the adult and social care financial pressures, but how are the other services going to improve? When there is yet another increase in council tax, a number of my residents in Longbridge Ward are very dissatisfied with litter and street cleaning, this proposed council tax rise of 4.99 per cent is not sustainable. Are you planning to have another increase in council tax next year?”
Cllr Twomey responded and said: “Next year will be something that we’ll think about next year, getting to this point in time has been difficult enough and to try and pre-empt where we might be in 12 months time would be not very smart as I don’t have a crystal ball to know where our funding will be in 12 months time.”
The cuts to street cleaning services come at a time when residents in parts of the borough are growing fed up with litter overflowing from bins. Olivia Virag previously spoke to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) about the issues around Dagenham and Becontree Heath, and started a petition demanding the council sorts it out. The council said at the time it was fining people who fly-tip and litter to deter them doing it, and was installing new bins, and checking ‘hotspots’ regularly.
The budget was ultimately passed, with 42 votes for and one against. During Wednesday night’s meeting, the council also passed changes to the council tax support scheme for 2025/26, which will cut support for residents on low incomes by up to 22 per cent. The council is setting aside £500,000 for a discretionary fund that aims to support the borough’s most vulnerable residents.
Cllr Twomey said it had been an ‘incredibly difficult’ decision to make as it will affect a number of residents including those who are very vulnerable. Earlier this week during a cabinet meeting, Cllr Twomey said he was hopeful the council might be able to review the scheme ‘in a positive way’ in the future.
Cllr Twomey said if the council didn’t reduce its support for the next financial year, the overall cost of the scheme would increase by a further £1million. Details of the new scheme will be published in March 2025, with the changes coming into force from April 1, 2025.
