Labour’s council leader in Edinburgh has been urged to resign after a chaotic budget which will see the minority administration forced to implement another party’s proposals – including ending no compulsory redundancies and looking at privatising services.
Edinburgh City Council is being forced to cut £76m from its annual budget in the next financial year.
Cammy Day, the council leader, has been urged to quit after his budget was labelled a “disaster” in which he failed to secure the votes to pass his spending proposals for the coming year.
Instead, tactical voting by Greens councillors led to budget proposals by the LibDems being voted through.
This means Labour will have to implement another party’s budget which includes ending the long-held no compulsory redundancies policy – a move labelled “devastating” by Unite the union.
The Labour administration will also have to investigate a review of waste and cleansing services that “considers the potential savings that might arise through external provision while maintaining if not improving services”, essentially looking at privatising key services.
Included in the budget is a Labour proposal to effectively end building council homes despite pledging to construct 25,000 over a ten-year period in the party’s manifesto.
The budget allows for just 200 more homes to be built by the council over 10 years.
The chaotic budget session saw Mr Day lose one of his councillors after the already-suspended Ross McKenzie quit during the meeting, pointing to “personal failings” within the Labour group.
He also criticised moves to make concessions to the Tories and LibDems in order to get their budget passed – a strategy that ultimately failed.
Mr McKenzie added: “I know how little work the administration has put into this budget."
Labour’s budget motion failed to win enough support after tactical voting by Greens councillors.
The party was then forced to decide whether to back a joint budget by SNP and Greens councillors or LibDems, but supported the LibDem plans.
The authority will now implement a five per cent council tax increase, cancel a proposed £5.5m of cuts to the schools budget and will put £10m into fixing roads.
SNP leader in Edinburgh, Adam McVey, branded Labour’s budget debate “a disaster”.
He added: “They’ve lost their budget, lost a councillor and effectively ended the council-house building programme.
“The city will lose a lot in this budget – housing problems will get worse.
“Labour voted to go down the road of privatising waste and cleansing services and to end the council’s long-established no compulsory redundancy policy. They could have instead supported the budget proposed by progressive parties.
“Fundamentally, if Labour can’t pass a budget they can’t run the city.
"I really hope the council leader can show the integrity that’s now required and resign.”
Mr Day told The Herald it was "not my intention to resign".
He added: "I'm hugely disappointed our budget did not pass today because of the Greens and former Labour councillor Ros MacKenzie voting with the Tories."
Mr Day insisted that his party "remain firm in opposition to privatising council services".
He said that he will bring forward a proposal "to keep those services in-house".
On redundancies, Mr Day said his party remain opposed to compulsory redundancies.
He added: "We will be working with other parties in the coming days and weeks to look at that decision again."
Edinburgh LibDems leader, Kevin Lang, said: “I’m delighted that a majority of Edinburgh councillors backed the Liberal Democrat budget motion today.
“Thanks to the Lib Dems, over £5 million of school cuts have now been stopped. We promised to stop this assault on education and we delivered.
“Our budget will also see a huge investment of extra money into addressing the dreadful state of Edinburgh’s roads and pavements, with extra money too for parks and street cleaning.
“Our council tax rise of 5%, lower than both Labour and SNP budgets, also means better news for residents during this cost-of-living crisis.
“We have always promised that Liberal Democrat councillors would focus on what matters most. We are delighted to have got a budget through that does just that.”
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