Hampshire County Council’s budget criticised by Liberal Democrat opposition leader Keith House for having ‘no vision’

Political opponents have hit out at Hampshire County Council’s latest budget – in which council tax will be hiked – saying it has “no vision” and leaders are “kicking the can” until the problem “is for somebody else”, writes Local Democracy Reporter Natalia Forero.

It comes as Hampshire County Council has approved the 2025/26 budget totalling £2.6bn – with a 4.995 per cent council tax rise for households.

The plan will deliver £188m investment in new and extended school buildings to provide more school places, £166m for structural maintenance and improvement of roads and bridges and £245m for integrated transport plan schemes.

The increase will generate an extra £50m of vital revenue income towards the delivery of crucial services to the people of Hampshire in 2025/26.

But it will mean band D households will pay £1,609.83 to the council, an increase of £1.47 per week, and that does not include amounts to borough/district councils, police, fire or any parish councils.

Leader of the council Nick Adams-King said that the authority is continuing to do everything it can to deliver a balanced budget, an “enormous and challenging task”.

Mr Adams-King said that despite asking the Government for help, for more powers, and for an increase in council tax by 15 per cent, “we found ourselves penalised by the fact our grants in the future will apparently be based upon on the assumption that we received the average council tax despite we are one of the lowest, and yet we can’t raise it to get to the point to get close to the average in order to get benefit further”.

He asked: “So what are we supposed to do?”

Mr Adams-King said that the situation “feels like a slow strangulation of the Southern counties”.

Before entering into debate, the leader recognised that British people and Hampshire residents deserve an apology from the political establishment “for the way in which we found ourselves now”.

“It is not just our party. Remember the council tax freeze that began to create this problem for us, which started under a coalition Government.

“And now, under this new Labour Government, we are experiencing the same situation again.

“It seems very clear to me that no matter who of us is going to talk to our colleagues in Parliament, no matter which party has tried to put the case for Hampshire forward in the past, no one has ever listened to us.

“No one has been able to understand or been prepared to understand the warnings Rob [Carr] has given us for years.

“So the entire political establishment needs to apologise.

“We should have anticipated this better […] and we did not”.

In a long debate, Liberal Democrat leader Keith House criticised the council, which accused it of “kicking the can” until the problem “is for somebody else”.

Mr House said that if the council had followed the Lib Dem recommendations, like maximising income, feeding tariffs, encouraging new housing development to get more income from council tax or charging utility companies, it would have been able to “climb out of the hole”.

He said: “It is too late. We have a perfect storm in front of us now.”

Mr House added: “What’s worse now is we are trying to suggest some fixes that we know aren’t going to happen.

“My fear is that what we are doing here in this council chamber is just kicking the can down the road long enough so it becomes someone else’s problem.

“That, to me, is what this budget is all about.

“There is no vision here.

“When we’ve asked over the years what the plan is to sort this out, we always get, ‘Well, there isn’t really a plan’.

“So what we’re really doing here is saying if we can fudge the mudge along the way, if we can sell a bit more, if we can borrow a bit more, we can find ways of spending a bit less here and there will kick the can down the road, just long enough for it to be someone else’s problem.”

Mr House added that while he appreciated the “impossible situation” the council is now, “we should be honest about that”.

“We shouldn’t simply be saying there’s a solution out there when we know at the moment there isn’t. That really isn’t.

“It’s dishonest. It’s disingenuous and linked to cancelling democracy; it doesn’t add up and doesn’t work.”