Dear Editor, At the annual budget setting council meeting on the 24th February 2026 the Green Group put forward an amendment of £4,500 for a one-year software licence. The software will allow officers to accurately assess how national benefit changes interact with the local council tax thresholds.
Cllr Saskia Heijltjes said, “This proposal arose directly from casework. A local resident contacted me after finding themselves worse off following an uplift in Carers Allowance. Unpaid carers are already time-poor, exhausted, and navigating a complex system. They are jumping through hoops to access support. When small increases in benefits result in them paying more council tax, that is not just frustrating — it is deeply unfair.”
The Green Group’s budget amendment was rejected with 46 councillors voting No, 5 voting Yes and 4 Abstained. The Cabinet Member for Resources said that this amendment was not a budget item and that this item needed to proceed through the Corporate Policy, Development and Scrutiny panel. The Green Group do not have any seats on the Corporate PDS and will now write to the Chair. The Green Group wanted this amendment to ensure that action is delivered by the Lib Dem administration.
Cllr Heijltjes added, “Later this year the cruel two-child benefit cap will be lifted, which will increase income for some households. Unless our local Council Tax Support Scheme is properly modelled we risk repeating these cliff-edge effects. Purchasing this software gives officers the tools to understand the data properly and bring forward evidence-based proposals to support those with the least in our communities.”
During the budget meeting, the Green Group’s Leader, Cllr Joanna Wright stressed that the Labour government’s Fair Funding Formula does not help address the wealth inequalities across BANES. The aim of the Fair Funding Formula is to provide greater stability to local government giving councils multiyear funding settlements. However, B&NES will receive less funding because it has been assessed as having lower levels of deprivation.
Cllr Joanna Wright said, “To the average council tax payer, the term Fair Funding means very little, what they do know is that their wages are paying for increased Council tax whilst having fewer services and more pot holes. The real issue is one of fairness. Our current regressive Council Tax systems costs the poorest residents proportionally more of their income than the richest. This is unfair. We need a better system to fund local services. We need a national wealth tax, taxing 1% of assets over £10million which should then be used to better fund public services.”
In the Green Group’s statement to the budget, Cllr Wright criticised the council’s scrutiny process, saying “the Lib Dems have chosen a process by which scrutiny is effectively just marking the administration’s own homework.”
And the Green Group criticised the council for the latest strike action which arose after the recent Being Our Best programme resulted in social workers being paid the same salary as their managers. Cllr Wright said, “I am all for wages going up, but Being our Best was intended to save Council Tax spend, instead it has increased costs and created strike action. Who is accountable for this, where is the scrutiny?”
Vicki Chillcott, Group Political Support Officer, Green Group, Bath & North East Somerset Council
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