Middlesbrough Council’s 2024/25 budget is set to be voted on this month and the town’s cllrs have been asked for their reaction.
Labour Mayor Chris Cooke has described the proposals as a “growth” budget which aims to move onto the “reset” phase of his plan to “recover, reset, deliver”. It was recently reported that additional funding had been secured as part of the provisional local government finance settlement, much of which is being dedicated to the newly created “Middlesbrough Priorities Fund”.
All 46 serving Middlesbrough cllrs were contacted via their cllr email address by the Local Democracy Reporting Service and were asked for their thoughts on the upcoming budget and what aspects they either liked or didn’t like about it. Cllrs were also asked if they planned to vote in favour or against the budget when it comes to full council on Wednesday 19 February.
The budget is expected to get Executive approval at a meeting on Wednesday February 5, where it will be presented by the mayor and executive member for finance, Cllr Nicky Walker.
Executive member for environment, Cllr Peter Gavigan confirmed that in news that would come as “no surprise”, he planned to vote in favour of the budget, while fellow Labour Cllr John Kabuye spoke about youth reinvestment and area care as the issues that mattered to him. Following additional funding from the Government as part of the local government finance settlement (which was finalised on Monday February 3), Middlesbrough’s area care budget is set to increase by 20% come the new financial year.
Middlesbrough Independent Councillors Association (MICA), led by Cllr Mick Saunders, sent a joint group statement, in which they said: “The MICA group have listened to the concerns of their residents regarding the ever increasing, above inflation, cost of council services whilst getting a much poorer service. The switch to fortnightly bin collections and a practically compulsory charge to collect green waste being a particular concern of our residents.
The council have previously defended the change from weekly to fortnightly bin collections, that started in 2024, in the name of making savings and to help set a balanced budget.
The MICA statement added: “We have asked for an explanation as to why Middlesbrough Council increased the number of officers earning £50,000p.a. or above from 107 (in 2022/23) to 216 (in 2023/24). To date no explanation for this massive increase in the number of managers earning this extortionate amount of money has been provided. We will continue to challenge the council to provide an explanation for this apparent excessive increase, which is unacceptable especially whilst the council continues to squeeze residents for even more increasing amounts of their hard-earned cash.”
Middlesbrough Council Open Data shows that the number of employees on a salary of more than £50,000 was 163 in 2024, compared to 84 in 2022. In 2023, there were 87 council employees on a salary of more than £50,000 – only a marginal increase from 2022. Yet, this also means there was nearly a doubling of council staff receiving salaries of more than £50,000 in the space of just one year.
A spokesperson for Middlesbrough Council said that this large increase in staff members in receipt of an annual salary of more than £50,000 is as a result of people going over the nationally agreed pay award thresholds and not due to new appointments.
The MICA group added: “We will continue to challenge the council on the children’s services budget, which despite doubling in the last 10 years still continues to overspend.” Analysis of the cost and responsibilities of the council’s children’s services duties was recently reported on; there has been a noticeable, above inflation increase in money spent within the department over the past decade. It should be noted that the latest council forecast predicts that there will not be an overspend on the budget for this financial year.
Finally, the MICA group commented on “the cost to the council for the Government’s decision to raise the National Insurance (NI) Employers’ contributions, which will cost the council a massive £3m with only government help of £1.3m which will leave a £1.7m black hole to fill.”
A Middlesbrough Council spokesperson has said the council is set to be covered for the NI increase for direct staff, but the council will have to pay for commissioned staff – in other words, those who the council pay to provide services, such as Everyone Active. The budget set for next year is balanced.
As part of the finalised Local Government Finance Settlement, when it comes to Employer NI contributions, Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner said: “I have confirmed allocations worth £502m to councils in England.” This does not cover the full cost increases as outlined by the Local Government Association, who have said that direct cost increase from NI contributions would be £637m nationally, while indirect employer NI cost increases, through commissioned providers, could cost an extra £1.13bn
The MICA group did not comment on whether or not their cllrs would be voting for or against the budget. It is also possible to abstain from votes in the council chamber. Meanwhile, no reaction was received from other Labour cllrs, or any Liberal Democrat or Conservative cllrs.
With Labour holding the majority on the council, with 24 out of the 46 cllrs, plus the elected Mayor Chris Cooke, it is likely that not only will the budget gain executive approval, it will also be voted through by full council on the first attempt. What remains unclear is whether the budget will receive much, if any opposition support in the chamber.
