A freeze in council tax and £17.3m of cuts were pushed through when Barnet Borough Council set its annual budget.

The Conservative-run authority was without its majority of one due to the absence of Councillor Danny Seal, leaving the Mayor of Barnet, Councillor Hugh Rayner, to use his casting vote to force the budget through.

The council is set to make £17.3m of cuts in 2015/16, with a further £73.5m of cuts by 2020.

Compulsory purchase orders for the Brent Cross Cricklewood scheme were also pushed through by the mayor's casting vote, and the council approved Argent Related as its development partner for the second phase of the scheme.

A motion to halt library cuts and launch a new consultation was also defeated on the mayor's casting vote.

Barnet Council leader Councillor Richard Cornelius warned that the authority had yet to find where £20m of the £73.5m cuts would come from over the next five years.

He said: “Each reverse spending cut requires more cuts elsewhere.”

Praising the work of the council, he said: “We are reducing spending and reducing the burden of taxation. There have never been so many homes built across Barnet.”

Speaking about the council tax cut last year, he said: “I am pleased we have been able to continue with the one per cut. This is a big achievement. I know officers are upset at this but it is an important help to members of the community.

“No one is arguing about the difficulties that lie ahead. Whatever government we get will say ‘hard cheese’ to the outer London boroughs. We have to face up to it.”

Conservative councillor Dean Cohen, chairman of the environment committee, also announced an extra £50m was to be spent on roads and pavements over the next five years.

Despite criticising the Conservative budget, the Labour group did not put forward an alternative budget.

Labour leader Cllr Alison Moore said: “They have spent the last year relying repeatedly on the casting vote of the mayor. It has been business as usual and the same dismissive arrogance.”

Cllr Moore criticised the Conservatives for privatising services in the borough, and for having an “ideological commitment” to small government.

Cllr Moore added: “Nationally and locally it’s the poorest and most vulnerable in our community picking up the tab. In the budget before us this evening the Tories have done little. In the end cutting crucial frontline services ends up costing more.

"27 per cent of children in Barnet live in poverty, yet they want to put up council rents. Just what sign does that make, unless you are bent on forcing them out of the borough."

Labour amendments to publish viability reports for regeneration schemes and grant flexible tenancies of five years to non-secure tenants on regeneration estates were also defeated.

An alternative budget was put forward by the Liberal Democrats' only councillor Jack Cohen, which included a council tax freeze and money to protect the library service.

His proposals included a reduction in director and senior officer posts, a £1,000 cut in councillors’ basic allowances, removing all councillors' special responsibility allowances and a reduction in spending on agency and consultancy staff.

Cllr Cohen also proposed reintroducing the neighbourhood skip service, reducing the cost of the mayoralty, scrapping free councillor parking permits and increasing spending on discretionary council tax support.

Cllr Cohen said: “What’s it to be, the allowances and the free travel perks or our libraries? A vote for the council budget is a vote for despair and denial.”

The Lib Dem councillor also slammed the council tax cut last year as a “futile gimmick” which had proved to be expensive, and criticised the administration for handing more than £100m to Capita.

He added: “This is public money. There’s no transparency, no checks and no balances.”