Bradford, the 2025 ‘City of Culture’, has just been given the green light by Starmer’s government to hike council tax by 9.9 percent – the highest rise in the country so far.
As a slap in the face to the city’s residents and any pretence of democracy, this rise is just shy of the 10 percent threshold requiring a local referendum for approval. Egregiously, the council initially proposed raising the tax by an extortionate 14.99 percent!
The Labour-run council has justified this attack on the working class by claiming it will reduce borrowing costs and protect services.
In reality, Bradford nearly declared bankruptcy this time last year, and was only rescued by a cash injection from the government.
A 9.9 percent council tax hike will not fix the black hole in council finances. Prior to the hike, the council was already proposing the closure of sports centres, libraries, household waste recycling centres, as well as increasing fees and charges for its services.
And even after this hike, the council is still forecast to have a £92.8 million deficit.
The council predicts they’ll need to cut even more, in order to save £40 million next year and a further £50 million every year for the following four years.
Anger and indignation
There is righteous indignation in Bradford, where key services are being cut, wages remain stagnant, and bills are rising.
One Bradford resident quoted in the BBC pointed out that “services are getting cut, so we’re actually paying more for less.”
Another lamented that “there are water bills going up, gas and electric are going up, but our wages aren’t going up by 10 or 15 percent.”
The audacity of the government and council – who boast about ‘culture’ while actively cutting access to it to keep their creditors happy – is plain for all to see.
In the past year, Bradford has seen huge demonstrations against Britain’s complicity in Israel’s genocide. And last summer, when far-right thugs were out on the streets, hundreds of local youth got organised, ready to defend their communities.
None of that anger and willingness to fight has not gone away. These attacks are being felt by everyone. Just a couple of months ago, Bradford school students protested proposals to axe two school buses which transport 1,300 students to their schools (see below).
This is just a taste of what’s to come, in Bradford and elsewhere. One in five councils is on the brink of bankruptcy, and there’s a limit to what people will take before they say ‘enough is enough’.
Labour has no solution for the crisis in local government, because they are wedded to the capitalist system.
The Revolutionary Communist Party says: down with cuts and austerity! The money exists to fund local services – make the billionaires pay for their crisis!
School students protest Bradford transport cuts
Tami Koroye, Bradford
A protest outside Bradford City Hall last December told a story that’s becoming all too familiar in British cities.
Hundreds of students from St Bede’s, St Joseph’s, and Bingley Grammar stood in the winter cold, fighting to save their school buses from the chopping block.
Busy afternoon down at Bradford City Hall covering the St Bede’s and St Joseph’s ‘Save our Buses’ campaign for @YorkshireV , as Bradford District Council meet to discuss cuts to the school’s bus services pic.twitter.com/K9LcmVIiCp
— Will (@will_cooper03) December 10, 2024
Bradford Council is pouring £10 million into the “City of Culture” celebrations – part of a massive £42.4 million festival budget. Yet, they say they can’t find £500,000 to run buses that get 1,300 kids to school safely each day? What nonsense!
“The public transport just isn’t there,” said Wendy Crowe, a leading campaigner to save the buses. “You can’t cut a service when there’s no alternative.” She’s right – years of cuts to bus routes have left many parts of Bradford poorly served by public transport.
The council is in a tough spot, with their reserves shrunk to £39.6 million and a £120 million deficit. But these aren’t just numbers on a spreadsheet – they represent the fundamental failure of a market-based system.
Birmingham Council went bust last year, Nottingham followed, councils like Bradford are teetering on the edge. This isn’t about bad management – it’s about the bankruptcy of capitalism itself!
