Liverpool: 'Big Sam budget' jibe as council tax hike approved

Liverpool City Council is a year into a three-year budget process in which it needs to save £85m

Liverpool council leaders were compared to a football manager famed for trying to keep struggling teams out of danger as they set their latest budget.

Carl Cashman, the Liberal Democrat opposition leader, made the jibe as council tax was put up 4.99%.

He called the budget "the Sam Allardyce budget, barely keeping [the council] above the relegation zone".

Labour leader Liam Robinson said the council was in better shape than near-bankrupt authorities like Birmingham.

The budget was set under the supervision of government commissioners, who have been at the council since it was declared "dysfunctional" in 2021.

'Diligent'

The commissioners described the budget as "the culmination of some very impressive teamwork" within the council.

"I am pleased at the diligent approach we have taken," Mr Robinson said.

"We have been able to protect frontline services and invest money into street cleaning, children's services and homelessness."

He said the council was not at "that financial cliff edge that other big city councils are".

Birmingham Council has approved a 21% rise in council tax alongside major cuts to services.

Liverpool City Council was compared to relegation survival expert football manager Sam Allardyce

Mr Cashman said it "wasn't good enough for the Labour administration to simply celebrate the fact we're not Birmingham".

The council said it would put £3.5m into children's services following a damning Ofsted report in 2023.

It will also increase some charges, such as for garden waste collections, and will cut funding for cultural events.

Protestors say they are worried the leisure facilities in Everton and the Dingle will close

One of the council's savings plans includes outsourcing the running of two of its leisure centres, in Dingle and Everton.

Demonstrators outside the meeting said they worried no operator would be found and that they would close.

Kevin Robinson-Hale, from Everton, said it "doesn't matter who owns [the leisure centre], as long as it is kept open for the community at affordable prices, that's fair enough".

Commissioners reduced

The government team was sent to oversee the council after the 2021 inspection.

The number of commissioners is now to be reduced, as there will be no replacement for Joanna Killian who is stepping down to take up a new role at the Local Government Association .

The Local Democracy Reporting Service said new documents from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities had confirmed oversight of highways, finance and appointments was to return to the council.

Max Soare, deputy director of local government stewardship, has written to Chief Executive Andrew Lewis, saying ministers had asked him to confirm they "recognise that substantial progress has been made by your authority," and the role he had played since joining in May 2023.

Mr Soule said commissioners and ministers had "confidence" that Mr Lewis and the authority would "continue to work collaboratively" with commissioners in order to support the authority's ongoing improvement".

He added that the reduction of commissioners was "in recognition of the progress being made by the authority" and a managed transition would be supported "to reduce and ultimately end the statutory intervention."