A budget for all

This was more or less my speech on the budget.

"Over the past four years this council has managed to set the average council tax increase at less than 3%, which is well below inflation.
The days of Labour average rise of 11% are over.

This administration has tried to make the necessary savings at a time when funding from the Assembly Government is definitely not forthcoming. They have kept council tax down, but have also worked hard to be efficient with public money.
And they have delivered £42 million pounds of savings, exceeding Assembly targets.

I am pleased to see that the Liberal Democrats, as in previous years, are putting at the centre social care and education, by allocating nearly 23% of the budget to social care and over 41% to schools. This is our elderly and frail and our children. Let’s not forget that what Labour calls 'value for money' means poor services.

Under the previous Labour administration, social services required special measures. Under Labour, our schools received one of the lowest investment and had low achievement. This is all changed now. The Liberal Democrats are turning things around.

There are, of course, those who say that they have no children or any need for social care. They ask ‘what’s in it for them’.

I say that investment is going into all public services and that there is something for every citizen of Cardiff in these proposals:
- new park & ride facilities,
- excellent council housing standards,
- money to ensure that no one has to live in a bed & breakfast,
- street cleansing,
- recycling and waste collection,
- funding to maintain 101,
- and, of course, social care and education.

There is also something else in this budget for all citizens and that is most valuable. There is the commitment to citizenship, to a city where we go beyond our selfish concerns and work for one another, and where nobody is left behind.

There is a vision of social justice that needs to have a place in our city. The social justice Labour have long forgotten and that the Conservatives have never known."