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A Central London council has voted down a proposal to reduce the amount council tax will rise by, as it outlined how it intends to spend taxpayer cash over the next financial year. Westminster City councillors voted along party lines to narrowly reject an opposition amendment to raise council tax by 3.99 per cent, instead of 4.99pc, during a budget meeting on Wednesday night (March 5).
Instead the Labour administration laid out where the council's budget will be spent, including more CCTV cameras, a new antisocial behaviour team and £1 million in cost of living support.
The opposition said the £710,000 loss in revenue, by limiting how much council tax would rise by, could be covered by reducing agency staff and 'efficiencies' in other areas. But Council Leader Adam Hug accused the Conservatives of running out of ideas.
He said: "What we have here tonight was a real contrast, between a Labour administration clear on its purpose and ambitious but pragmatic in its approach and an increasingly extreme Conservative party with no new ideas of their own, propelled forward by a sense of entitlement to power and a desire simply to tear down what we are trying to build."
Westminster City approved the 4.99pc rise, which includes a 2pc increase for adult social care. According to the local authority, council tax for a Band D property will rise by 48p per week, which it says is still one of the lowest rates in the country.
Opposition Leader Paul Swaddle also proposed, as part of the rejected amendment, to increase spending for a legal fund to challenge Sadiq Khan's pedestrianisation of Oxford Street and to launch a dockless bike enforcement team to tackle the scourge of poorly parked e-bikes. He said: "Despite reassurances from the Labour-led council, dockless bikes continue to run riot and block streets and pavements across the city and while the council has announced new parking spaces for dockless bikes and e-scooters it is clear the present scheme is not working. It is time to punish companies who allow riders to irresponsibly park bikes and take enforcement action."
But Cllr Max Sullivan, the Cabinet Member for Streets, claims the proposal was a waste of taxpayers' money. He said the council was already fining operators and had forced them to remove thousands of e-bikes in the last year. The meeting was also briefly interrupted by pro-Palestine protesters who were quickly escorted out of the chamber.
The 2025/26 budget includes:
£140m into buying and maintaining temporary accommodation properties
An extra £1.2m to tackle rough sleeping
An additional £1m on cost-of-living support
£2m in funding to tackle antisocial behaviour (ASB) - including doubling the number of CCTV cameras to 200, creating a new team to combat ASB and recruiting extra officers to fight noise nuisance. The council said installing up to 40 new cameras in the West End – focusing on Soho and Leicester square – is the most significant council security investment in the area in nearly a decade
An extra £2.6m for adult social care, which will go towards a pay rise for care assistant and levelling up the threshold at which people start to pay for their social care costs
Council Leader Hug said: "Today, we set out a budget that is more than just numbers on a page - it is a blueprint for a Fairer Westminster – a budget that balances financial responsibility with bold ambition. A budget that ensures every resident, no matter their background or circumstance, has the opportunity to prosper here."
Labour has been in control of the council since 2022 but has seen its majority fall from 31 to 29. Westminster Conservatives now have 25 councillors, up from 23. In September, the party lost a seat in the West End to the Tories and more recently lost the by-election in Vincent Square ward.
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