Mansfield mayor proposes council tax freeze to help residents combat pressures in cost of living

Mansfield mayor Andy Abrahams has announced a planned freeze in Council Tax to help families struggling with the increasing cost of living.
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It had been proposed to raise the tax by 1.99 per cent to raise £115,000 towards the £1.3m funding deficit – but a ‘better than expected’ funding settlement from Central Government.

Mansfield District Council now also plans to increase the hardship fund for ‘vulnerable residents who are struggling to make ends meet’.

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Mayor Abrahams said: “We are determined to help Mansfield ‘bounce back’ yet again from the latest set back by Covid, so we intend to put an extra £30,000 into our economic stimulus fund, making a total of over £100,000, to continue our proud record of helping small businesses start and then survive and another £26,000 to improve the play areas in parks across the district.

Mansfield mayor Andy AbrahamsMansfield mayor Andy Abrahams
Mansfield mayor Andy Abrahams

"We realise that we need to attract more visitors to the town so we have also decided to contribute £25,000 to have the Nottingham leg of the Tour of Britain cycling race finishing in Mansfield.

"When we were elected in May 2019, we were left with the finances in tatters with year-on-year several million pound deficits to address because of years of fiscal mismanagement by the Mansfield Independents.

"In their defence, they were given an almost impossible task because the continuous under funding of Local Government by the Tories mindless 10-year austerity policy, which left councils not knowing which way to turn to protect services.

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"Covid has exposed the damage this lack of funding has done to in our public services with an NHS waiting list of 5.7 million, shortages of doctors, nurses, teachers and social care to name just a few.

"Despite the Government’s PR machine spewing out constant rhetoric about huge per cent increases in funding, as a maths teacher it know it is easy to demonstrate high percentage increases after you have cut staffing and resources to the bone.

As Labour is a minority administration, I hope we will get the support of the opposition to get our proposals, that will help all Mansfield’s residents, passed at Full Council in January.”

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