NEW TAX BLOW FOR MILLIONS
Councils given green light to hike up bills
THE average household faces a crippling £116-a-year rise in council tax after ministers lifted curbs on local authority budgets yesterday.
Communities Secretary Sajid Javid told MPs that town halls and police chiefs are to be given the extra freedom to raise local charges from next April.
Councils will now be permitted to raise bills by an extra one per cent on top of a previously agreed maximum increase of five per cent.
This could see a further £104 added to the average annual bill for those in tax band D.
The Government also announced that police and crime commissioners will be allowed to raise an extra £450million for local forces, adding a further £12 to the average annual bill.
Campaigners for lower taxes have hit out at the prospect of punishing increases for millions of householders. Christine Melsom, from the
group IsItFair, said: “Householders cannot continually be forced to pay ever-rising bills – they are simply unable to afford them.
“It is just not fair to put all these financial burdens on them.”
John O’Connell of the TaxPayers’ Alliance said: “With wage growth stagnating and the cost of living on the rise, it beggars belief that politicians are asking for powers to take even more of people’s hardearned money. Council tax has already nearly doubled in the last decade so it isn’t fair to ask residents to plug the gaps in their finances.
“Councils should instead continue to root out waste and scrap any item of spending that does not help provide an essential service.”
He added: “In a dangerous world, it’s important that the police and security forces have the resources they need. But to think that the only way to fund them is through ever-higher taxes is wrong.
“The Government should reduce spending from elsewhere in the bloated Whitehall bureaucracy.” Mr Javid told MPs: “While we all want to ease growing pressure on local government services, I’m sure none of us want to see hardworking taxpayers saddled with ever-higher bills. This settlement strikes a balance between the two... recognising the need to keep spending under control while tackling many of the issues raised by local government.”
Home Secretary Amber Rudd added: “Whether it’s local forces, the national picture or counter-terrorism capabilities, this is a strong settlement that ensures forces have the resources they need to keep us safe.
“However, my message to the police is that this increased investment must mean we raise the pace of reform. For too long, embracing digital and increasing productivity have been tomorrow’s problems.”
In the Commons, Labour’s shadow communities secretary Andrew Gwynne said: “Councils are desperate for additional funding.
Vision
“I’m sure they may well appreciate some of the piecemeal solutions offered by the Secretary of State today, but we are still without a sustainable plan, a vision for how the sector will be funded in future.
“While the announcement offers some additional support, it pays merely lip service to many of the problems facing our local councils.
“This Secretary of State has today presented himself as Santa, but the details of this announcement really show him to be the Grinch.”
Mr Javid hit back, telling MPs it was “same old Labour” with a policy of “spending, spending, spending”.
He said: “He just says one thing – which is he wants more spending, more spending for police, more for fire services, children’s services, for adult social care, for sprinklers, for pay, for pensions. Spending, spending, spending – it’s the only thing he knows. With Labour it’s all about higher spending, higher taxes, higher debt.”