Low council taxes 'not to blame'

The leader of a council in Derbyshire threatened by a cash crisis has denied low council taxes were to blame.

The Conservative-led Amber Valley Borough Council has revealed it has to make cuts to make up a £2.5m shortfall.

The union Unison has said around 80 staff would be made redundant if council tax did not go up.

But the council leader Stuart Bradford has blamed a poor government settlement for the current problem, not low council taxes.

Government settlement

The Labour opposition group at Amber Valley said it had been warning the council about its spending for years.

However, the Conservative group argued that it was the Labour government that had squeezed funding for Amber Valley well below inflation.

Speaking on the Politics Show, East Midlands, Mr Bradford said: "We have actually pursued a policy of maintaining a fairly low council tax rise - which was pursued by my predecessor.

"So that's not the case at all. This is to do with a poor government settlement."

Unison has insisted the authority should increase council tax rather than cut jobs, saying that redundancies would inevitably lead to reduced service.