Council tax rise pushes family bills over £2,000

The Times reports today that council tax bills are set to rise by more than twice the rate of inflation this year.

The information comes from a Times survey of 200 local councils, showing that the average bill will rise 4.3% in April - equal to a £50 rise on a mid-range Band D property.

This will mark a doubling of the property tax in just 10 years - from £525 in 1996 to £1,053 today.

With gas and electricity also set to rise by up to 22% this year, this will push most families' household bills over £2,000.

Local councils have said that they will only be able to keep council tax rises to single figures by cutting back on key services like social care, libraries, road maintenance and making hundreds of workers redundant.

So where's all the money going? The government is simply not providing enough of a grant to councils to enable them to provide basic levels of service without pushing council tax to painfully high levels.

However the government can apparently afford billions of pounds extra for the EU every year - an organisation that hasn't had its accounts approved by auditors for 11 years running.

The government may think they can get away such appalling priorities. But it's MPs who give the final nod to that wasteful EU budget deal, so it's MPs who'll get hit at the ballot box if, as a result, council tax in their constituencies rises to intolerable levels.

So when considering whether to approve the EU budget deal, MPs need to think a little more carefully about the personal effect of exhibiting such bad priorities than the government needs to.