Peterborough City Council budget

Peterborough City Council leader Cllr Dennis Jones and deputy leader Cllr Mohammed Jamil on the budget plans for a 9.99% hike in Council Tax

Transcript

00:00How is the financial situation facing the council at the moment?

00:05Pretty dire. We're not as bad as some of the authorities around the country

00:10but we are surviving by the skin of our teeth

00:13and we desperately want to change that situation

00:17for the benefit of this city. Certainly we want to achieve cross-party support

00:23and a greater understanding of the financial predicament we find ourselves

00:27in as a council. Okay. It talks about a council tax

00:31increase of 9.99%. Benefits would it bring?

00:35We'd never like to see that. We don't know what benefits there are and this is

00:39one of the things where we want to consult with our

00:42fellow councillors to find out what benefits there are

00:45and what we can do. Ideally not to raise it by anything like that amount.

00:51Okay. But that would allow you to invest in services though?

00:54We'd certainly like to think so yes. When it goes out for consultation we'd

00:58like the public to say to us well you know

01:01if you're going to put it by that much these are the services that we'd like to

01:04see more of. So it gives everyone an opportunity.

01:07The parties initially but then it's a consultation for everyone

01:10and the more public members get involved the more they let us know

01:14the better it could be for when we actually come to set the budget

01:18and I think you know maybe if it's not that high

01:22none of us want to set a high budget however the more money we have the more

01:26we can do with it.