The city council’s budget shows it will ‘not bend with the neoliberal zeitgeist’ despite continued cuts, its deputy leader said.

Ed Turner said the Labour’s group had showed it was trying to provide a ‘fairer city’ through implementing an ‘Oxford model’ of services.

He said the council would increase its homelessness budget to £1.7m a year. A council tax premium of 100 per cent will be paid on properties that have been empty for more than two years. If they have been empty for between five and 10 years, that rises to 200 per cent.

Council tax will increase by 2.99 per cent – an increase of £8.94 on 2018/19’s charge for a Band D property. A Band D property’s bill will be £307.80. On top of the county council’s charge, that will mean a total charge of £1,776.63.

Mr Turner said it was also planning to spend £26m on council housing at Barton Park, while also welcoming a ‘change of heart’ from South Oxfordshire District Council, which has included planned housing at Grenoble Road in its Local Plan.

The council’s leader, Susan Brown, said of the budget: “It protects the most vulnerable, and particularly those who are either vicariously housed or living in poverty and those who are unfortunately living without housing because of the austerity policies of the government.

"It is astonishing that we are able to spend nearly 12 per cent of our budget on homelessness – but this is not sustainable.

“We need to continue to lobby the government to make sure that they stop with this ridiculous situation where they give us little pots of money here and there where we’re competing with other councils.”

She added Universal Credit, along with other government policies, needed to be changed because the policy was ‘putting people on the streets in the first place.’

The council said it wanted to spend £250,000 improving cycling around the city, but the Liberal Democrats said they wanted that increased by another £500,000.

Louise Upton, responsible for Healthy Oxford, said she was ‘very, very excited’ about the cycling plan, which she said could unlock funding for Oxford like Cambridge, which recently received £100m for cycling improvements. Cycling expert Andrew Gilligan has recommended Oxford is given £150m for improvements.

Mr Turner said he was ‘furious’ over the Lib Dems’ amendments. He demanded a named vote was taken over a planned £5,000 cut to a trade union official.

Labour councillors were generally more complementary of the Green Party’s amendments. Another executive board member, Mike Rowley, said they contained ‘ideas with potential’ – but they needed more work. They included a plan for 1,000 solar canopies over cars in park and rides.

Both Lib Dems and the Greens opposed the planned expansion of Seacourt Park and Ride. All amendments were defeated.