Budget: The Sheffield Green Party says the government in ‘a desperate pickle and it shows’

Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ budget has sparked a lively debate over the last 24 hours with some celebrating the new measures to fix the country’s financial crisis (and setting the foundations for years to come) and some being concerned about the impact it will have on families and small and medium-sized businesses.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) has already heard from the South Yorkshire mayor Oliver Coppard – who welcomed the budget and said it was the first step to fix what’s gone wrong in the last 14 years – and Sheffield City Council where we were told there is a “cautious” positivity following the budget.

This cautious positivity is not something Cllr Douglas Johnson, the group leader from The Green Party in Sheffield, would agree with.

He told the LDRS that the government was in “a desperate pickle and it shows”.

Cllr Johnson said: “It desperately needs to raise taxes to fill the holes left by the previous government but has still ruled out taxing the people with the broadest shoulders – the very, very wealthy.

Measures like a modest increase in the minimum wage are welcome and needed. This will, of course, put an extra financial burden on employers, in addition to the increase in employers’ national insurance.

“This will particularly affect public sector employers like hospitals and local councils.

“A new approach to carer’s allowances and extra money for special educational needs are also welcome.

“However, things like the burden of rising bus fares will fall far more on lower-income households.

“It’s astonishing that a so-called Labour government will put up bus fares by 50% whilst spending £3billion to keep fuel duty down for petrol and diesel.

“This is unhelpful when we are trying to give people decent public transport options so they can choose to leave cars at home. All in all, it looks very much like climate-denial and continuing austerity.”

Cllr Johnson told the LDRS that the Greens would want the very rich to contribute more – those with assets above £10m at one per cent and assets above £1bn at two per cent annually.

He also criticised the South Yorkshire mayor Oliver Coppard for “not showing an initiative” like Andy Burnham in Greater Manchester who has announced he would keep the £2 cap for their residents.

Cllr Johnson said the budget did not bring the big change they had hoped after 14 years of the previous government.

He said: “It is going to look very much the same. What people will see is bus fares going up by 50 per cent and the service not getting better.

“We risk more cuts to local services as local councils continue to feel the pinch. The budget will add big pressure to local councils’ wage bills so we need to see the detail of how the government will compensate for these extra costs.

“I’m really not sure that people in Sheffield will agree with the chancellor that there’s “no return to austerity.”

He said Sheffield was in a great position to benefit from investment in green businesses but “we haven’t seen any indication of this type of investment in this area”.

He added: “Sheffield Supertram was mentioned in the chancellor’s speech and we know that £400m is needed to replace a large part of the capital infrastructure.

“There is an extra £200m allocated for city transport projects across the whole country but we don’t know how much Sheffield will see of this money.

“We will need to work through the details of the budget but the headline is that there is no more money for councils or local services and 2 per cent cuts to most government departments.

“This is going to look very much like the previous government.”