Council tax will rise by just under 5% while savings of £29million are also made to balance the books, reports Grace Howarth, Local Democracy Reporter

Haringey Council has approved its 2025/26 budget amid criticism from opposition councillors over the state of the civic centre’s finances.

At a full council meeting at Tottenham Town Hall on Monday (3rd), councillors voted through a budget which will see council tax rise by just under 5% and savings of £29million made to spending, although there will be extra money available to cover adult and children’s social care and temporary accommodation costs.

The council has projected it will spend £129.5million on adult social care this year, up from £106.1m last year. For temporary accommodation it has ring-fenced £17.5m, up from £11m last year.

Last month the council confirmed it had successfully applied to the government for permission to access up to £37m in exceptional financial support (EFS) for 2025/26, plus £28m to address overspending in 2024/25, bringing a total of £65m.

EFS is a government mechanism which allows councils to borrow and/or use capital receipts to cover revenue shortfalls. Haringey Council has said it will be doing both, although it may not need to use all of the £65m granted.

The budget was approved by councillors voting along party lines, with 45 Labour members voting in favour, while seven Liberal Democrats and four Independent Socialist Group councillors voted against it.

Lib Dem group leader Luke Cawley-Harrison warned the council was “tumbling freefall over the cliff edge” on its finances and also criticised its levels of borrowing, reliance on reserves, and “unrealised savings”.

Cllr Cawley-Harrison said: “Look where we are now, the reserves are gone, the trust is gone, the money is gone, a government bailout is in.”

But Labour council leader Peray Ahmet said councils across the country were living “hand to mouth”, a situation she said was largely brought about by Conservative governments between 2010 and 2024.

The council’s cabinet member for finance, Dana Carlin, said the opposition party was “conveniently” failing to acknowledge the financial difficulties “many councils are facing”.

She added that the need for EFS was not due to the council embarking on “foolish financial schemes” or “wasting taxpayers money” but was instead down to demographic pressures in the borough.

The Liberal Democrats proposed four amendments to the budget. The first was to establish a voluntary improvement board, made up of independent and external members, to help the council address its financial and governance challenges.

The second was to reduce the need and amount of EFS, the third was a new voluntary council tax contribution scheme, to raise income, and the fourth was a private sector leasing incentive scheme to encourage  private landlords to offer their properties to the council.  

The amendments were rejected by Labour, however, and Cllr Carlin said the council was “grateful” for the EFS, which she said would be “distributed on need” and was “only a temporary measure”.

The cabinet member pointed out the council did not intend to borrow “all the money” and would use “as little as possible”. 

She said the council would not set up an additional independent board “with all the associated costs” as the budget was “already” overseen by the overview and scrutiny and audit committees.

Independent Socialist Group member Lotte Collett, meanwhile, took a swipe at central government, which the administration had praised, saying it could have funded the NHS, supported local councils, and increased taxation for the richest “instead of funding arms manufacturers and war”.

Cllr Collett and fellow group member Mary Mason highlighted increases in service charges for council tenants, a reduction of library services, and foodbanks closing due to a “lack of premises” as key issues, and called for the council to stop making “decisions behind closed doors”.

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