Gareth Molineux

Cabinet Portfolio Holder for Resources

THE council has been rightly praised recently from an unusual source, the Tax Payers Alliance.

The Alliance is a staunch advocate on behalf of the public and an organisation that seeks to highlight waste and inefficiency at all levels of government and fights to keep taxes down.

It recently analysed tax increases by all councils across England and found that only seven councils had raised council tax by less than inflation over the last 20 years.

All other councils across England had a long track record of substantial increases above the rate of inflation in their council tax levels over the last 20 years.

Hyndburn is one of those seven councils where the local increases in council tax levels is below inflation over the last 20 year period.

This means that the council tax for Hyndburn council services you pay today is less than the amount paid in 1997 after the impact of inflation is considered.

Hyndburn is also the only council north of Watford to have this accolade of keeping tax increases below the rate of inflation.

This makes this achievement even more remarkable as councils in the south of England have benefitted from substantial growth due to extensive house building over this period and therefore their council tax revenues have grown without the need to increase the amount each individual pays, simply because many more people are paying council tax, whereas here in Hyndburn that has not been the case.

Our success in keeping council tax increases below the rate of inflation over such a long period is even more astounding, given that Hyndburn council is also one of the Councils that has been hardest hit by the government’s austerity programme over the last seven years.

So with a 65pc reduction in money from the government in the last seven years, the likelihood the rest of government funding will be removed over the next two to three years and a strong track record in not raising council tax above inflation, the council has been forced to manage its operation extremely tightly and each year we are forced to find new and innovative ways of delivering our services across the borough.

This coming year is no exception.

We have been working over the last few months to ensure we can limit council tax increases to below inflation for next year whilst continuing to provide key services to local residents.

This work will culminate in February when the cabinet announces its plans for the financial year ahead and the council takes the decision on the level of council tax for next year.

As in previous years, we have been prioritising key services to the public to protect them from the full impact of the budget reductions we need to make and looking at what can be saved in back office functions, administration and non-productive costs.

We are again committed to avoiding the need to increase our borrowings and debt levels, so as to ensure we are not having to pay unnecessary interest payments to banks rather than using this money on providing direct services to our customers.

As always we welcome suggestions from anyone on how we can do things better, improve our operations, how we can save some money or generate extra revenue, so if you have any ideas please pass them along to your local councillor or email me at the council on gareth.molineux@hyndburnbc.gov.uk.