It is budget setting time for councils across the country.

Local councils of all types have to decide what rate of Council Tax to set and budget how they will spend their revenue and capital over the coming year.

Everyone in local government knows how tough things are. Local services are under resourced, struggling and sometimes failing. At the same time, ordinary families face a huge cost of living crisis from rising bills that many in Westminster do not seem to understand.

In Kent County Council, where I lead the Liberal Democrat group, the ruling-Conservatives are raising Council Tax by 3% and cutting services by £28 million.  Inflation, such as rising energy bills and increasing need to help a growing but ageing population take their toll and leave gaps in the budget.

Part of what is behind this is a decision last autumn by the Chancellor to cut taxes for the owners of banks.

Bank pay a surcharge on their profits. In October Sunak announced a cut in this which will cost the government about £1 billion per year.  Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey rightly attacked this at time.

I don’t buy Tory arguments that the government had to do this to help Britain attract banks who would otherwise move to other countries.  If that was a priority for this government, they would not have pursued a hard Brexit that has caused such problems for the banking sector. I believe the Chancellor’s policy is more a reflection of the Conservative Party’s dependence of donations from the mega-rich and his personal ambitions.

If that billion had been put into local government it could make a huge difference.  If it was divided on a simple per capita basis, my county would receive £24 million – almost enough to not need to make the cuts proposed by the Conservatives. Or family bills could be helped by reducing the Tory increases in Council Tax.

The same is true across Britain. The money Sunak decided to give to banks’ owners is money that could have come hardworking families and the local democratic institutions that serve them.

Liberal Democrats are the party that, if we get power at Westminster, will devolve power and resources to a local level. The need for us to do that has never been greater.

* Antony Hook was a Liberal Democrat MEP for South East England (2019) and has practised as a barrister since 2003. He is currently Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group on Kent County Council.