Barnet Council plans to spend more money on tackling climate change, supporting adult social care and keeping streets clean.

The town hall’s budget for the current financial year has been revised to begin to meet the pledges made by the Labour administration following the group’s election win in May.

It includes spending more than £500,000 on climate change measures, £5.8million of capital spending on adults and safeguarding, and £2.1m on a refund of the adult social care council tax precept to help residents deal with the cost-of-living crisis.

Some £600,000 will be spent on introducing community skips to help people dispose of bulky waste, £500,000 on quarterly “deep cleanses” of residential streets and £250,000 on improving roads and pavements.

The revised budget, which reveals the council will need to make almost £12.4m of savings to close its budget gap this year, was presented to a meeting of the policy and resources committee on Tuesday.

Speaking during the meeting, Conservative group leader Dan Thomas said the council appeared to be “raiding reserves” to the tune of £5m, partly to refund the 1% adult social care precept, and asked what the administration’s approach to the precept would be in the future.

Council leader Barry Rawlings said the administration would not raise council tax by the full amount but was likely to charge the precept.

Cllr Thomas claimed Labour had shifted to the political right on tax and asked if the new administration had scrapped a plan to cut spending on senior management and other staff costs by £2m.

Cllr Rawlings responded that the £2m had been replaced by the use of reserves and pointed out that Labour planned to spend more on adult social care. He added that there were no plans to cut officers “at the moment”.

Labour’s Ross Houston said the budget was about “investment in the future”, including tackling climate change and “making Barnet an attractive [place] and hopefully the most successful borough in outer London.”

Conservative Richard Cornelius raised concerns over whether the budget had fully accounted for rising inflation levels and “demand-led” adult social care costs, which in previous years has led to a “significant overspend”.

Cllr Rawlings replied that the spending was designed to ensure people could remain in their own homes for longer, and that the government needed to “come to a proper conclusion” on how social care would be funded.

The eight Labour committee members voted in favour of the revised budget, with the four Conservatives voting against.