Manchester Green councillors have cautiously welcomed today’s council budget as ‘better’ than in recent years, while stressing that there is still an urgent need for more government investment.
At today’s Manchester City Council meeting, councillors approved the council’s budget for the coming 2025/26 financial year, which includes a 4.99 per cent council tax rise.
Abstaining on the budget put forward by Labour, Manchester’s Green councillors have emphasised that Manchester City Council and local authorities like it across the country will not fully address the challenges they face without further financial support.
Cllr Anastasia Wiest, leader of the Green Party on Manchester City Council, said: “We can be grateful for a balanced budget again this year, and the fact that we have received a better settlement from the government than we have in years.
“However, it is still nowhere near what we need, and residents will have to bridge the gap through another 4.99 per cent council tax rise.
“Due to the government’s decision to increase employer National Insurance contributions, much of the increase in our budget will be absorbed by these payments. This will leave us with hardly any increase on previous years, when the Tories were in charge.”
At the meeting, Greens criticised the national Labour government for policies such as maintaining the Conservatives’ two-child benefit cap and removing winter benefits for pensioners, noting their direct impact on the city council’s budget.
While welcoming the £7 million the council expects to gain from extended producer responsibility fees, Greens expressed particular concern that Manchester will not hit its target of reaching net zero by 2038 without further government funding.
Instead of expanding airports and cutting foreign aid, they said, Labour should instead increase tax on the wealthiest, a measure which would affect a tiny minority of the population each year but contribute billions of pounds more to public finance.
Cllr Wiest added: “While Manchester will do what it can with the resources it has, the budget we have been given by the government reflects Labour’s lack of vision and ambition, giving with one hand and taking away with the other.
“It reflects their tendency to ricochet between climate care and climate chaos, to let the rich off easy, and to put the heaviest burdens on those struggling most in society.
“A Green budget would create a country where wealth is distributed more equally, where every citizen can experience energy security from clean and renewable resources, and where our economy serves both people and our planet, rather than being an excuse for inaction and inequality.”
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Notes to editors:
The Green Party is an opposition party on Manchester City Council with three councillors. The leader of the Green group on the council is Cllr Anastasia Wiest. The deputy leader is Cllr Astrid Johnson.
The three Green councillors on the council are Cllr Anastasia Wiest, Cllr Astrid Johnson, and Cllr Rob Nunney. All three represent the ward of Woodhouse Park.
Manchester City Council is formed of 87 Labour members, three Greens, four Liberal Democrats, one Worker’s Party member, and one independent.
Cllrs Wiest and Johnson can be available for interview upon request.
For further information, please contact Chris Ogden at press@manchester.greenparty.org.uk.