Council tax in Greenwich is going to be hiked as the cash-strapped local authority looks to balance its books and pump funds into Universal Credit support and battling knife crime.

Councillors agreed to up tax by 2.99 per cent – on top of 2 per cent earmarked for adult social care - following a meeting last night. 

The budget, which must be set every year, includes cuts to the authority’s anti-poverty contingency and domestic violence support team.

One-off influxes of just over £1m will be going towards supporting residents on Universal Credit – a new benefit system that has been widely criticised – training people back into work and to tackling youth violence and knife crime.

To fill the council’s budget gap, council leader Dan Thorpe said last night there was no choice but to hike taxes.

MORE - Greenwich Council 'at end of the line' - but more cuts needed

“We simply don’t have the resources we need,” the leader said.

“It is abundantly clear that the political choices made in the name of austerity has created significant pressures on ourselves and public-sector partners. The impact of Tory cuts is laid bare for all to see, people outside Tesco’s forced to beg for money.

“The Prime Minister and her team may say that austerity is over, but we see no evidence of that at all.

“With the gap in our budget we have no choice but to propose a council tax rise of 2.99 per cent.

“Cuts have consequences. The onslaught against the poor goes against the values our country was built on.”

Greenwich’s funding since 2010 has dropped by more than £1,400 a household, more than the London and England average.

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Opposition Tory councillors tabled an amended budget that they claimed would save an extra £1.3m, which would be used to fund a council tax support scheme that the cash-strapped council has had to postpone.

The Conservatives’ budget targeted the council’s PR, claiming £74k a year could be saved on professional photography and corporate communications.

Other savings included cutting cabinet positions and replacing the council’s fortnightly freesheet Greenwich Info with a cheaper alternative.

MORE - Greenwich Info: Council agrees £1.3m contracts for 'pointless' magazine

Cllr Matt Hartley, leader of the opposition, said: “We’ve been told every year additional efficiency savings cannot be found and yet here we are.

“This Labour leadership still refuses to get real on big areas of wasteful spending.

“Our amendment would deliver the promise that the current Labour leadership has failed to deliver to lift the poorest people out of paying council tax altogether.”

The Conservative amendment was unanimously shot down by Labour councillors, who lined up to call out the government for cutting funding, and criticise the opposition for proposing “nonsense”.

Cabinet member for enforcement, Cllr Jackie Smith said: “Things that go on in the big bad world affects us in Greenwich. Cuts to public services, austerity and all the things inflicted on us by the Conservative government are affecting our people.

“For you to come and say we cut a few things, we can right that, well no you can’t – it can’t be done.”

It was agreed that council tax would be upped by 2.99 per cent, bringing in £2.4m to balance the books.