The Strategic Policy and Resources Committee (SPRC) had proposed that the rate increase should be set to 3.8% for 2026\/27.<\/p>\n
That would raise \u00a3218,945,031 over the financial year, according to documents from the committee.<\/p>\n
SDLP Councillor Seamas De Faoite initially sought to propose lowering this increase to 3%, and later 3.13% following a correction.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cWe will be making a proposal that we go for a lower level than what was set earlier today, that we go for a 3% increase, that that recognises in response to the particular issues raised throughout the process around inflationary pressures, around costs.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd that it begins the process of helping us set up a growth pot to be able to address things like house and bedroom generation and other things that we’ve talked about before. And I think that all of us can agree on should be priorities for the city.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Lisnasharragh councillor added that large underspends in funding have arisen, and argued that the council must ensure \u201csmart financial decisions\u201d are being made.<\/p>\n
People Before Profit Councillor Michael Collins proposed to freeze rates altogether and could not \u201cin good conscience\u201d support a rise.<\/p>\n
\u201cParticularly as the cost of living continues to soar,\u201d Mr Collins added. \u201cAnd the price of other Council services continue to rise as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
He noted that the cost of weddings, funerals, burials, cremations, leisure services, and \u201ceven the Belfast City Hall exhibitions have seen a marked price increase in recent years. And despite this rates continue to soar\u201d.<\/p>\n
DUP councillor Sarah Bunting supported the rates increase in order to help community services that are supported by the levy.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is serious and this is an impact on our rate payers. And we understand those pressures on working families,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd we hear from them every day about the impact on them. But if we set a rate this low, it also impacts the delivery from this council on those day-to-day services that they need. The bin collections and the streets being cleaned.\u201d<\/p>\n
The council subsequently voted against Mr de Faoite\u2019s proposal to lower the rates by five votes in favour and 50 against.<\/p>\n
A vote to defer the matter back to the SPRC committee was successful with 46 for and 11 against.<\/p>\n
The Council have a statutory duty to have a rate struck by February 15.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Strategic Policy and Resources Committee (SPRC) had proposed that the rate increase should be set to 3.8%…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":754109,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5011],"tags":[155107,5813,1144,16,15],"class_list":["post-754108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-northern-ireland","tag-abdullah-sabri","tag-belfast-city-council","tag-northern-ireland","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116044266585427909","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=754108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754108\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/754109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=754108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=754108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=754108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}