Liberal Democrats in Surrey have claimed victory as the Conservatives cancelled their planned 15% tax rise in the face of overwhelming opposition from Liberal Democrat councillors and Surrey residents. The Council tax will now increase by 4.99% in April.

We have also condemned the County Council’s budget as a charade as the Conservatives pushed through £123 million of unspecified cuts to council services and have criticised the shambolic way in which the budget debate was conducted with the Council meeting being adjourned three times with little or no explanation and with councillors being provided with just a few sheets of paper containing the new council tax proposals but no detail on any new funding from the government – funding which was needed to support the new proposals.

As events unfolded, councillors across the Council Chamber were astonished that no new government money was announced by the Leader of the Council in order to plug the gap in the council’s finances despite leaked messages showing that this had been discussed with government ministers.

The chaos clearly demonstrated how the Liberal Democrats and Surrey residents, thousands of whom signed a petition, had forced the Conservatives into last-minute action and to back down from their unpopular and unaffordable 15% council tax hike. But there is still no certainty over where the money to avoid drastic cuts to essential services in the next financial year will come from. The County Council was already facing the prospect of making £93 million of unspecified cuts next year even with the 15% tax hike and it will now have to find an extra £30 million on top of this – meaning that £123 million of cuts are on their way.

The reality is that the county council’s finances will remain in a poor condition until a fairer funding arrangement for vital adult social care services is agreed with central government. This is what Liberal Democrats are calling for and this is what was wholly missing from the Conservative budget.

The budget is a huge gamble with the County Council’s finances as the Conservatives have failed to provide any details of how the Council’s budget is sustainable next year let alone in the next few years. It appears that it has been proposed in a panic and has been solely designed to save Tory seats in the Surrey County Council elections in May rather than in an attempt to sort out the financial mess they have created.