Will a 10% tax hike help tackle soaring debts?
It will also consider cuts worth £42m in the next financial year.
The BBC examines the reasons behind the council's fiscal woes.
The council's borrowing has been prompted by a drop in government funding which it says has seen £350m cut from its budget since 2010/11.
Last year, the authority was granted government permission to borrow more, and sell off more of its surplus land and buildings, to keep essential services running and avoid effective bankruptcy.
That emergency borrowing is predicted to grow considerably as the graph below shows.
A report by the council's senior finance officer also states that rising debts will see the authority owe in excess of £1bn by 2030, rising from less than £400m in 2021/22.
Most of the current debt relates to capital projects, schemes such as Bradford Live and One City Park, which have been funded through government grants, loans, or a combination of the two.
The report states that it is increasingly relying on borrowing to run core services and 20p in every £1 will ultimately go towards debt repayment in future.
The costs of running services is also increasing, especially in children's services.
Despite being removed from direct council control and placed under an independent trust, its costs continue to spiral..
Bradford is one of several English councils with debts exceeding or likely to exceed £1bn.
Birmingham City Council owes almost £3bn, and others such as Woking, Croydon and Spelthorne have similar debts.
Having a large debt is itself not an indication of financial troubles - as larger authorities will inevitably have larger borrowing needs - but in many recent cases, debts have posed serious problems.
Across the country, the picture for council finances has been dire for several years, leading to the government announcing a major shake-up of how local authorities are run.
Jonathan Carr-West, chief executive of the Local Government Information Unit, said its State of Local Government Finance report laid bare what he said was the "dire situation facing councils across England".
"It is no surprise that councils are having to pull all levers to balance their books," he said.
"This underlines a fundamentally flawed system for funding local government and one that needs to be radically reformed if we want to avoid an endless cycle of crisis management moving forward."
If the 9.99% council tax rise is approved later, an average Band D household in Bradford will face a rise of £170 this year.
Other authorities in West Yorkshire plan to raise theirs but only by the normal maximum of 4.99%.
Leeds' Band D bills are set to rise by £86 a year and Kirklees by £93. The annual increase will be £85 in Wakefield and £108 for Band D households in Calderdale.
Bradford was one of six councils granted permission by the government earlier in the year to propose council tax rises above the usual maximum of 4.99%.
The proposed rise has led to a series of protests and political opponents have also argued the hike could have been avoided.
Bradford University student Taz Chowdhury, 21, was at one of the protests and said considering a 10% tax rise in one of the country's poorest cities was "egregious".
"I don't think it's appropriate or acceptable, and we have to fight back," she said.
Maureen Gorst and Jjeneen Sherrington were also among those demonstrating.
They said public services were "failing" and "broken" and rising living costs were a worry for everyone.
"I am 66, I retired a year ago, and I still have to have two jobs to manage," Ms Gorst said.
Ms Sherrington questioned the appropriateness of spending on public art and UK City of Culture in the current economic climate.
"I can't afford it," she added of the 10% council tax rise.
Sarah Siree also joined a protest with her 10-year-old son and said she was already struggling as a single parent.
"There's nothing left at the end of the month. Where do they think people are going to get this extra money from?"
Labour council leader Susan Hinchcliffe said reducing reliance on borrowing was at the heart of the authority's financial recovery plans.
She said increasing the council tax to 9. 99% as a one-off would actually help "make sure that we save the council taxpayers £111m worth of borrowing over the next 20 years".
"We're already trying to reduce that borrowing to make it more manageable, not just for now, not just for next year, but for our children and our grandchildren," she said.
She said the tax made a "huge contribution" and the council was between a "rock and a hard place".
"We don't want to do this increase in council tax, but we know it's the right thing to do, not just for now, but for the future."
Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.
Why do councils go bust and what happens when they do?
Town Hall debt levels staggering, MPs warn
Protest over plans for 9.99% council tax hike
English councils to get £700m top-up next year
Council approves £40m cuts citing poor funding
Bradford Council
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Business Insider
an hour ago
- Business Insider
Google (GOOGL) Expands Its AI Mode to Over 180 Countries
Tech giant Google (GOOGL) is expanding its AI-powered search tool, AI Mode, to over 180 countries and territories in English, with support for other languages coming soon. This tool helps users ask complex questions and get more helpful, conversational answers. A new feature also lets users share their AI-generated results with others using a 'Share' button. This allows friends or family to continue the conversation from where it left off, which is ideal for planning events or trips together. Importantly, users can delete shared links at any time in order to maintain control. Elevate Your Investing Strategy: Take advantage of TipRanks Premium at 50% off! Unlock powerful investing tools, advanced data, and expert analyst insights to help you invest with confidence. In addition to global availability, Google is rolling out new 'agentic capabilities' in AI Mode. These features help users complete tasks like finding restaurant reservations based on specific preferences such as party size, time, location, and cuisine. AI Mode searches multiple booking sites like OpenTable, Resy, and Tock, then provides real-time options and direct links to book. Google says more capabilities, like booking event tickets or local services, will arrive soon. Currently, these agentic tools are part of an experimental feature for U.S.-based Google AI Ultra subscribers. AI Mode is also becoming more personalized. Indeed, for U.S. users who join the Labs experiment, Google will now tailor results based on previous searches, preferences, and interactions with Maps. For instance, someone looking for a quick lunch may see personalized suggestions that match past behavior, such as favoring Italian food or outdoor seating. This makes search more relevant, while still letting users adjust or turn off personalization in their account settings. Is Google Stock a Good Buy? Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Strong Buy consensus rating on GOOGL stock based on 27 Buys and nine Holds assigned in the past three months. Furthermore, the average GOOGL price target of $216.47 per share implies 8.1% upside potential.
Yahoo
7 hours ago
- Yahoo
It's Not Tariffs, It's You: How Marketing Missteps and Tone-Deaf Collabs Are Crushing Brands
In the past, brand partnerships were seen as monumental cultural events—think 18th-century royals lending their names to luxury goods or icons like Babe Ruth fronting tobacco campaigns in the 1930s. They were rare moments that generated headlines and shaped consumer trends. Fast-forward to the digital age. Collaborations have become an industry in themselves, with influencers, celebrities and corporations teaming up on a near-constant basis. More from Sourcing Journal Wrangler and Coors Banquet Celebrate the Spirit of the West in New Collection Target CEO Cornell Resigns, but His Delivery and Fulfillment Investments Endure American Eagle's Foot Traffic Drops Amid Sydney Sweeney Controversy While that might sound like a win from a profit standpoint, oversaturating the market with high-profile campaigns has its downside, according to Dave Mayer, a senior partner at global brand consultancy Lippincott. 'Any collaboration is only as good as the benefit that it delivers to its customers. Initially, that's boosted by novelty (I mean, we are designed to seek new experiences for the dopamine hit and social recognition that comes from being early adopters),' Mayer told Sourcing Journal. 'However, as collabs become more common, the novelty wears off. At this stage, the underlying value proposition—meaning, the tangible benefits and relevance to consumers—becomes the primary factor determining their excitement.' Nowadays, brands are locked in an arms race to launch the hottest campaign with the flashiest star, hoping to grab attention and drive sales. But with collaborations dropping in a near-constant cycle, there's little time left for thoughtful curation, and that rush to stay relevant can make campaigns more prone to missteps or outright controversy. Take, for example, American Eagle's (AE) Fall 2025 campaign featuring 'Euphoria' star Sydney Sweeney. In one of the promotional videos for the campaign, Sweeney says, 'Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair color, personality and even eye color. My jeans are blue.' A voiceover then states, 'Sydney Sweeney has great jeans.' Almost immediately after the campaign went live, fans across social media tore apart the wording, posting comments like: 'This is what happens when you have no [people] of color in a room. Particularly in a time like this…this ad campaign got so caught up in this 'clever' play on words and this stunt the [people] in the room missed what was so blatantly obvious to anyone not White.' The backlash wasn't confined to just social media, though. According to AI-powered geospatial insights company Pass_by, AE's in-store traffic decline accelerated in the wake of the controversy. For the week of Aug. 3–9, visits were down 8.96 percent year-over-year, following a 3.9 percent drop the previous week. 'When a collaboration goes wrong, the cost is more than just wasted media spend. Trust erodes, acquisition costs climb and retargeting pools shrink,' Joseph Perello, founder and CEO of performance-based creator marketing platform Props, told Sourcing Journal. 'AE's Sydney Sweeney campaign shows a different risk. After decades out of the cultural spotlight, the brand staged a provocative return. Investors cheered, with AEO shares spiking nearly 24 percent,' he added. 'Yet the sales data told another story. Early analysis showed little impact on demand or in-store traffic. The campaign generated headlines, political commentary and trading frenzy, but not sustainable consumer behavior. It serves as a reminder that shock value may stir markets in the short term, but it rarely builds long-term brand equity.' AE hasn't cut ties with Sweeney, and in Perello's estimation, the campaign's unfortunate subtext could amount to a blip on consumers' radar. However, there are instances when brands' handling of collabs gone wrong could prove critical. If history is any guide, companies that cling too tightly to a controversial figure risk deeper financial fallout. Adidas learned that lesson in 2022 when it severed its nearly decade-long partnership with iconoclastic creative Kanye West following his antisemitic remarks. The breakup reportedly cost the sportswear giant around $247 million in lost sales. Other partners including Balenciaga and Gap quickly followed suit in severing ties, also suffering fiscal blows. Lost sales don't always stem from a poorly executed campaign or a celebrity scandal; they can also be driven by the players behind the brand itself. In 2024, Lululemon founder and former CEO Chip Wilson drew sharp criticism for controversial remarks about the company's customers and marketing direction. Wilson, who resigned in 2013 after infamously blaming a yoga pants recall on the size of women's thighs, resurfaced in a Forbes interview to slam Lululemon's diversity and inclusion efforts. He accused the brand of becoming 'like the Gap—everything to everybody,' and dismissed ads featuring models he claimed were 'not inspirational.' 'I think the definition of a brand is that you're not everything to everybody,' Wilson told Forbes. 'You've got to be clear that you don't want certain customers coming in.' While the company didn't suffer an immediate collapse in sales, its performance in the Americas showed signs of strain. Net revenue in the region grew just 4 percent in 2024 compared to the year prior, with comparable sales flat in the fourth quarter and down 1 percent for the full year, according to a Lululemon press release, suggesting a slowdown in what remains its most critical market. All in all, it was a relatively modest ding in sales for Lululemon. More recently, though, retail giant Target proved that the way a company represents its values can have bigger consequences. In 2024, the retailer—long praised for its Pride merchandising—reversed course, announcing it would sell Pride-themed apparel and home goods for adults only 'in select stores, based on historical sales performance.' It was a drastic shift for a chain that had featured such items widely across its U.S. locations for more than a decade. The move was compounded by fresh backlash this year after Target announced it was winding down certain diversity initiatives, saying it needed to 'stay in step with the evolving external landscape'—namely, the Trump administration's crackdown on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI)—while still claiming a commitment to 'inclusion' and 'belonging,' according to an internal memo from chief community impact and equity officer Kiera Fernandez. The consequences were swift. Coupled with mounting tariff pressures, Target acknowledged that customer boycotts tied to its DEI retreat had dented performance. Quarterly sales fell 2.8 percent to $23.85 billion, missing Wall Street's $24.23 billion expectations and down from $24.53 billion a year earlier. On Wednesday, following the company's earnings announcements, 11-year CEO Brian Cornell announced he would step down as the company works to steady itself amid ongoing backlash and wavering consumer loyalties. Amid the upheaval, Target and Ulta Beauty announced this week that they will not renew their shop-in-shop partnership once the current agreement concludes in August 2026, a move that's likely to dampen in-store traffic and weaken a program once touted as a key growth driver. 'The increasing polarization of values has made it more difficult for mass market brands to embrace collabs with other brands that may have characteristics that alienate a subset of their audience. This polarization—particularly along the conservative to liberal spectrum—has fractured collaboration opportunities into distinct pools where political values must align as a prerequisite,' Mayer said. 'So, a mass-market retailer like Target is largely limited to collaborating within a similar market space and cannot easily engage with brands strongly identified with either progressive or conservative ideologies without risking audience backlash,' the consultant added. Whether it's a tone-deaf executive or a poorly executed campaign, the bottom line is that consumers aren't rejecting collaborations altogether. But brands will pay the price for inauthenticity. Younger shoppers in particular want partnerships to stand for something bigger, whether that's innovation, sustainability, inclusivity or 'even just joy,' as Alexis Quintal, CEO and founder of Rosarium PR & Marketing Collective, put it. 'The real business value today lies in how intentional and authentic the partnership feels to the consumer,' Quintal told Sourcing Journal. 'When brands treat collaborations as short-term stunts or cash-grabs, fatigue can set in. But when they focus on shared values, storytelling and creating something consumers couldn't access otherwise, the return on investment (ROI) remains strong.' Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
New York Post
7 hours ago
- New York Post
Could Dame Jillian Sackler's prized NYC home list for sale?
Manhattan's most alluring mansion stands to return to market for the first time in decades, leaving luxury property looky-loos salivating for a grand reveal — after the property spent years hidden from view. In May, Dame Jillian Sackler, widow to the Purdue Pharma kingpin Arthur Sackler — Purdue and Sackler being names linked to the years-long opioid crisis — died at age 84 from esophageal cancer. Since the 1980s, she had been the primary resident of the devilish address 666 Park Ave., a triplex maisonette at the base of the 660 Park Ave. co-op tower, which stands at East 67th Street. She shared it with her late husband, who died in 1987. And now, the one-of-a-kind dwelling could head into a new generation of ownership. 10 Dame Jillian Sackler passed away in June. She was the widow of Arthur Sackler, who died in the 1980s — and was a member of the now-disgraced Purdue Pharma family. The Washington Post via Getty Images 10 The maisonette has its own entry, seen at left. Olga Ginzburg for N.Y. Post In case your family name doesn't grace a wing at the Met, here's a little catching up: A maisonette is the stuffed pheasant of rarefied Manhattan real estate — a townhouse-like residence within a larger building, usually on the ground floor with a separate entrance. Spot their inconspicuous front doors — easily mistaken for the entries to doctors' offices — around Beekman and Sutton places or Fifth and Park avenues. Though traditionally bearing the No. 666 mark, it appears the address has changed recently to blend in with the existing No. 666 edifice. Address aside, this perch is nonpareil even within the competitive, money-no-object milieu of Upper East Side roosts. 'Surely,' the New York Times gushed in 1981, it's 'the greatest maisonette ever constructed in New York.' Not only is it massive — it occupies the complete second, third and fourth floors (each roughly 4,000 square feet) in the 14-story, 12-residence building — it's decked out like an English country seat. It's the kind of serious house where a 50-foot long, 24-foot-high drawing room dressed with 18th-century pine paneling excised from the old Spetisbury House manor in Dorset sits comfortably. There are between 21 and 27 rooms in total that have served as vessels for early 17th-century French Chinoiserie from the Château de Courcelles in northwestern France, sections of Georgian paneling pinched from a house on Grosvenor Street in London — as well as Sackler's bowerbird hoard of antiques. Arthur collected Renaissance majolica, Shang dynasty oracle bones, Post-Impressionist paintings and whatever else he could get his hands on. Elsewhere, Corinthian columns frame a large window, a grand oval staircase slithers past a mezzanine, ornate chimney pieces radiate warmth and a wonderfully obsolete 'card room' receives guests. 10 The building bore the addresses 660 and 666, as seen in this archival image. Google Maps At the time it was built, plans called for 10 servants' rooms. 'If you include the entrance and its small foyer and stairway, it's actually a quadruplex apartment,' said Andrew Alpern, who has visited the splendid spread and featured it in his 1992 book 'Luxury Apartment Houses of Manhattan.' If all that seems offensively old fashioned for a building built in 1927 at the height of the Jazz Age, that's the point. Its developer Frederick Ecker, a captain of Metropolitan Life Insurance, tapped staid and conservative architects York & Sawyer to conceive the limestone facade — a firm best known for institutions like banks, clubs and colleges, not to mention the New York Historical Society. It would be erected in opposition to the emerging Chrysler Building-modernism that was coating the city in chrome. It wasn't alone in its rigid traditionalism, but in a city that never sits still, where homes are expected to be updated with the latest fashions — and where developers dice up historic charmers like mad vivisectionists — No. 666 somehow survives much as it always has. 'I cannot imagine that Sackler made changes of any significance to the main rooms,' added Alpern. 'I suspect that he threw together some of the maids' rooms — there were a ton of maids' rooms and only a couple of guest rooms. I'm sure he updated the kitchen and the bathrooms and air conditioned the place, and probably put in new electricity. But other than that, I would bet that the place probably looks very, very similar to the way it looked when it was first built.' Alpern suspects all that because only a few privileged visitors have seen inside the home in recent decades. Moreover, it has only had four owners in nearly 100 years. And except to society figures and boldface names — such as Samuel Goldwyn and Lana Turner in the 1940s; Imelda Marcos in the early 1980s (who bought the contents of the home at that time), and more recently singers Luciano Pavarotti and Placido Domingo — the home is a closed book. Its most recent photos come from a 2002 Architectural Digest feature. 10 The interior of the Vanderbilts' former Fifth Avenue mansion. Library of Congress 10 The exterior of that former dwelling, which stood on 52nd Street and Fifth Avenue. NYPL Digital Collections As for its slightly satanic sounding address, thank turn-of-the-century socialite Virginia Fair Vanderbilt for that. Newly unwed from playboy hubby William K. Vanderbilt II, she ditched the family nest, a Stanford White-designed palace at 666 Fifth Ave., to custom-design the maisonette at 660, for which she paid a then-record-setting $185,000. Insisting on a separate address, she christened it No. 666, a reference to her former Fifth Avenue digs. It was a brash exercise in real estate one upmanship — and perhaps spite. Not long before, Vanderbilt's ex-husband had moved into another maisonette across the street at 655 Park Ave. Hers was better. Hers was bigger. Trump card played, and she never moved in. Instead, she fled farther uptown where she commissioned a new standalone mansion at 60 E. 93rd St., which last traded hands in 2022 for $52.5 million. Prohibition Era booze business behemoth Seton Porter picked up the pieces. He purchased No. 666 and completed the construction, creating much of what can still be seen today. But now, many years on, could this kind of residence find its next owner? 10 The maisonette alone takes up three floors of the co-op building. Olga Ginzburg for N.Y. Post 10 The co-op saw its most recent sale in 2022 — and it was in the millions of dollars. Olga Ginzburg for N.Y. Post Corcoran broker Kane Manera said that maisonettes are a unique niche of New York's upscale real estate environment and attract an equally niche buyer. Like townhouses, he said, they typically trade at a lower price per square foot compared to upper-floor apartments. The most recent sale in the building was back in 2022, when billionaire heiress Aerin Lauder sold her 11th-floor spread to a Goldman Sachs exec for $19.5 million. Despite being roughly three times larger, Manera doesn't think that you can simply triple that price for the Sackler's shack. 'People want a view. They want light. They want privacy,' he said. 'Some people don't feel secure with their door directly on the street in New York. Other people are completely fine with it.' There are other obstacles, too. The building is ruled by a tough board, insiders said, that will put any potential buyer through the wringer. The co-op also requires deals to be made in cash, with multiples of the sale price held in liquid reserves. 'The weakest segment of the luxury market is high-end Park, Fifth and Central Park West co-ops,' said real-estate appraiser Jonathan Miller, of Miller Samuel. 'The condo invasion has crushed the co-op. In fact, over the last decade, values for high-end co-ops are lower. The problem is that difficult co-op boards are devaluing these places by being a barrier to entry. The other thing is that the new condo product is tall and generally narrower. So they have 360-degree views.' Then there is the small matter of its splendiferous anachronistic outfitting. A buyer who wants to take on the preservation, or reinvention, of a home this dated, on this scale, may be one in a million. Still experts guess that a ballpark of $40 million, give or take, sounds about right without having seen it. 'So long as the interior is not landmarked, as long as you and your designer can take the best of what's there and incorporate that into something more livable and modern that doesn't feel like an interior at Harvard University, you have exciting potential,' Manera said. 10 The building is known for its handsome limestone facade. Olga Ginzburg for N.Y. Post 10 A world of opulence is known to live within the maisonette's walls. Olga Ginzburg for N.Y. Post Finally, there's the question of the previous owners. In June, millions of Americans finally got justice in the form of a $7.4 billion judgement against the Sackler family and Purdue. Roughly $6.5 billion of those funds will come from the family's personal fortunes. However, Arthur purchased No. 666 and died years before the company started its OxyContin campaign; Jillian isn't specifically named in the settlement. The couple produced no children and it's currently unclear who will inherit the home, or if it will get tied up in the settlement, details or which have yet to be released. 'He died over 30 years ago, and he's the scapegoat,'' Jillian told the Washington Post in 2019 in defense of her late husband's legacy. 'It's absolutely incredible.'' Regardless, Miller thinks that for the right cloven-footed billionaire, this could be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to raise a little hell. 'If I were a wealthy enough person to buy something like this, just the fact that it was No. 666 would appeal to me as an FU to society.' he says. 'That's pretty cool.'
