Council tax to rise by double the rate of inflation

Council tax bills in England are set to rise by about 4% on average this year, reports the BBC today.

A Local Government Association (LGA) study into 100 draft council budgets obtained by the BBC shows some councils may put bills up by nearly 5%.

The association has warned that many local authorities will still have to ration or cut services despite the increases in tax.

The chairman of the LGA, Sir Simon Milton is quoted as saying: "No-one likes paying more council tax, but this year town halls are making enormous efforts to keep bills down."

But adds that it has been impossible to avoid putting up bills because of the increasing pressure on council budgets.

"Several government departments are shifting extra costs on to councils while limiting funding from central government," Sir Simon said.

The LGA cites that councils are facing extra costs caused by increased migration, funding free travel for pensioners and the disabled, and increasing social care budgets, due to larger numbers of elderly people, and the cost of dealing with household waste.

In Hampshire, one of the councils where bills will go up by nearly 5%, the authority's leader Cllr Ken Thornberry also blames Whitehall for creating the situation.

"We are being asked to do more and more every year by central government with less and less. The system is not sustainable."

This news of another inflation-busting rise in Council Tax comes as the Government gifts a 63% increase in payments to the (audit-failing) EU, and highlights the utter irresponsibility of those MPs who recently voted to approve that deal.

Their constituents will clearly now pay the price of such completely unjustified generosity to the EU through their Council Tax bills. Read who those MPs were here.

As a result of the EU budget deal, we are now paying so much money to EU institutions every year that our new gross annual EU contribution (more than £10 billion) is now enough to cut everyone's Council Tax bill in half.

That's what those MPs could have done with the money, instead of giving it to a body whose auditors haven't been able to explain its spending for 13 years running, and which is regularly mired in reports of waste and fraud.

Coupled with the recent news that MPs want to gift themselves a nice pay rise, a large section of our political elite seem to be becoming ever more detached from financial reality ... busily feathering their own nests and unjustifiably gifting billions of pounds extra a year to unaccountable international institutions, imagining that such waste is not contributing to oppressive Council Tax rises and essential public services being cut.

The only way to wake these people up with a sharp dose of reality is now at that ballot box, the next time we get an opportunity.

Wales: Councils warn on funding figures

Local councils in Wales have criticised their £3.8bn budget settlement for next year from the assembly government.

The assembly, which receives its funding from the UK government and Europe, last week set out its spending plans.

Ministers admitted funding was "tight", saying local government funding would rise by 2.3% next year and by 2.6% and 2.8% in the following two years.

Local Government Minister Brian Gibbons called it a "realistic" deal and said councils must make efficiency savings.

But the Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA), which represents council leaders, called this year's settlement "appalling" and warned of public services cuts, jobs losses and rising council taxes.

Derek Vaughan, leader of the WLGA, said: "The assembly government seems to think that council tax payers are the solution to their budgetary problems - they can't balance the books, so the people of Wales are expected to cough up."

WLGA education spokesman John Davies, a Pembrokeshire councillor, said education authorities faced "cuts in service, redundancies and school closures" without extra cash or council tax rises.

Liberal Democrat Jenny Randerson said AMs had passed on a "very tight budget" to local authorities "knowing that with local elections next year, people are going to blame their local council, not blame the assembly government".

"I can assure you, they [AMs] wouldn't have been doing this to themselves if it had been an election year in the assembly."

Worcestershire: Council chiefs’ funding fears

Worcestershire County Council chiefs have echoed the warnings of the Local Government Association (LGA) in the wake of what has been called the worst financial settlement for 10 years - reports the Redditch Advertiser.

The Government's Comprehensive Spending Review was recently announced, which details public sector funding and in particular how much money local councils will receive for running day-to-day services.

The LGA has warned the settlement would mean above-inflation increases in council tax and potential funding black holes for services for older people.

The county council has already been working to shave £25 million off its revenue budget before 2010. And with the county having an above average older population, the effects could be felt even more acutely.

Councillor George Lord, county council leader, said: "This latest announcement is not good news for counties like Worcestershire. We're already amongst the poorest funded in the country and as the amount that the Government generally provides for local authorities continues to fall, we'll be hardest hit once again."

Councillor Adrian Hardman, cabinet member for finance, added: "We've been able to be amongst the top performing councils in the country in terms of efficiency and value for money in recent years and this has been the main reason why we've been able to balance the budget.

"It does get increasingly difficult however and we face some tough decisions for next year and beyond because there's simply insufficient money available to continue to provide services at their current and improved levels and to meet all the additional demands being placed upon us."

Full details of the implications of the Government's Comprehensive Spending Review are due to be unveiled in early December when the precise impact on the budget for the county can be calculated.

What has Redditch MP Jacqui Smith have to say about this, while she intends to vote £7bn of evidently scarce government money away to the audit-failing EU?

The £25 million the council needs to maintain services is not even two days worth of the money Ms Smith plans to gift the EU.

Approving the waste of such vast sums on an organisation with a terrible record for waste, corruption and mismanagement will mean she must take personal responsibility when funding shortfalls such as these inevitably occur.

Small rise ‘will mean higher council tax or cuts in service’

Householders face big increases in council tax or cuts in services after what council chiefs said was the worst settlement in a decade - reports The Times.

The Local Government Association (LGA) said that the 1% a year funding increase for the next three years would inevitably lead to council tax rises above this year’s 4.2%.

The association warned that efforts to hold down council tax rises would be at the expense of cuts in social services and elderly care.

“This is the worst settlement for local government in a decade,” said Sir Simon Milton, the LGA's chairman.

“Councils will continue to work hard for the people they serve but they face tough choices. The Chancellor’s announcement will mean above-inflation rises in bills for council taxpayers and businesses, and there remains a black hole in funding for the care of the elderly.”

The association claims that there will be 400,000 more older people over the next three years, many of whom will require social services at home or in residential care.

Yet councils have already had to restrict the eligibility criteria for social care at home.

Council tax 'doubles in 10 years'

The average council tax bill has almost doubled in the past decade, according to a report by the Halifax building society.

The rise, from more £550 to almost £1,100, is three times higher than the rate of inflation and twice the increase in average earnings.

The tax is now 91% higher than when Tony Blair first took office.

The Local Government Association (LGA), which represents councils in England and Wales, has dismissed the report as a rehash of old information.

Corin Thomson, LGA's programme director, said councils needed the extra money to cope with "major environmental challenges" and the care needs of an ageing population.

"Council tax is being put under huge strain over recent years as authorities are having to deal with massive social and economic change," Ms Thomson said.

Average earnings have increased by 51% over the past 10 years and retail price inflation has risen by 31%.

The typical UK household now has to pay £1,078 in council tax annually, compared with £564 in the 1997/98 financial year.

Martin Ellis, chief economist with Halifax, said that councils had made smaller increases in recent years because of the anger surrounding the steep rises since the later 1990s.

He said: "Councils may well turn round and say well that's because they're providing better services.

"But we're just highlighting the point that there's been a big, big increase and certainly much sharper than the increase in either prices or average earnings.

"And this is taking more and more of peoples' disposable income. We have seen, to be fair to councils in the last couple of years, we have seen smaller increases more in line with retail prices in the last couple of years.

"So I think they are taking note of what's been happening and the sort of level of discontent that there's been with the big increases."

Figures show that more than half of all districts have experienced at least a doubling in council tax bills since 1997.

Anna Pearson, Policy Manager at Help the Aged, said many older people on low incomes frequently went without basic essentials to pay their council tax.

"When you compare council tax rises with the meagre rise in the basic state pension, you can see why pensioners are having to deprive themselves of basic necessities to get by.

"In the fifth richest country in the world that is nothing short of appalling.", she said.

But why isn't the extra money councils say they need to provide services coming from central government? That shortfall is what's causing councils to put extreme tax pressure on local people who can't afford to pay more.

Dare we suggest that too much central government money is being wasted elsewhere, such as on contributions to the EU budget - billions of which are frittered by the EU on empty buildings or even simply lost through fraud?

Meanwhile council tax continues to rise and MPs are set to vote an extra £2.5bn a year for the EU. Contact your MP to make sure they vote against that EU budget deal when it comes before Parliament for approval.

Harrogate: Residents set to face council tax increase

Council tax in Harrogate could go up by 4.4%, reports the Harrogate Advertiser.

Harrogate Borough Councillors are being asked to approve the rise – which is the same as last year’s increase – as part of next year’s budget.

The budget, has already been approved by the council’s cabinet and is set to go to the scrutiny committee and before the full council for final approval.

- Article contributed by: P.C, Dishforth

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.