The leader of City of York Council has denied she pledged to freeze council tax before last year's May elections - after voting to increase the tax by nearly five per cent.
Before being elected as council leader, Cllr Claire Douglas was pictured and quoted on Labour campaign material saying: “York needs a Labour-run council to freeze your council tax.”
But on Thursday night (January 25), the Labour executive voted to increase council tax by 4.99 per cent – not including parish, police and fire authority precepts – to add more than £5 million to its annual budget amid a forecasted £11 million overspend.
The Liberal Democrat party, the opposition on the council, is suggesting the tax hike is a broken promise by Cllr Douglas.
But the council leader says the campaign material referred to a pledge made by the national Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer to freeze council tax if he became Prime Minister.
The campaign material distributed before the May 2023 local elections that saw Labour elected in York with a majority quotes Cllr Douglas saying: “York needs a Labour-run council to freeze your council tax, reverse the Liberal Democrats’ blue badge ban, get free school meals to all primary school pupils and decarbonise our city.”
The blue badge ban, free school meals and carbon promises featured in Cllr Douglas's six election pledges.
But freezing council tax was not one of her six pledges and the council leader says it featured in campaign material because the national party asked her to include it.
Following the executive meeting on Thursday, the Local Democracy Reporting Service asked Cllr Douglas to explain the campaign material.
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She said: “That was a national Labour Party commitment from Keir Starmer that was made in March 2023 to launch the local election campaign from our national party.
“He committed that if Labour was in government they would freeze council tax for a year and so that’s where it came from.”
Asked if the council tax line was misleading, she added: “In my view, that’s not what the pledge was about.
“It was adhering to the national commitment to do that for residents so that’s why it was on there.”
York Labour’s actual key pledges before the May elections were:
- Ensure every primary school child gets a free school meal
- Reverse the ‘blue badge ban’
- Build genuinely affordable housing on council land
- Recruit a new team of neighbourhood caretakers to look after our communities
- Insulate thousands of York homes to cut bills and carbon
- Bring well-paid jobs to York
Cllr Paula Widdowson, deputy leader of York Liberal Democrats, said: “This is yet another example of a broken promise by this Labour administration.”
She also accused Labour of breaking promises on free school meals for all primary school children because the party has only announced two one-year trials.
However, Labour has previously said it aims to deliver the pledge in full by the next set of council elections, dependent on fundraising.
Cllr Widdowson also said Labour promised neighbourhood caretakers but “they’re nowhere in the budget".
She said Labour promised to bring well-paid jobs to York but said the council is now “cutting the economic development team".
Cllr Widdowson added: “I urge Labour to think again because their actions will have a negative impact on the most vulnerable people in our city.”
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