COUNCIL TAX BOMBSHELL
Just ten days before Christmas, families face shock with inflation-busting rises taking bills to AVERAGE of £1,778
Millions of struggling families are facing inflationbusting council tax rises of more than £100 in April, it emerged last night.
Less than a fortnight before Christmas, ministers announced they would allow town halls to increase the levy by 3 per cent – with many also able to add a further 2 per cent to pay for social care.
And they doubled the amount that police and crime commissioners can add to bills to help pay for local frontline policing. This will increase from £12 to £24 on average.
In total, it means a potential rise of £107 for the typical Band D council tax bill, taking average demands from £1,671 to as much as £1,778 next year. This is equal to almost £150 a month.
This increase – equal to an overall rise of about 6 per cent – is more than twice the rate of inflation. It would mean the largest yearon-year rise in council tax for a decade.
Those living in Band E homes face a jump of £131, with an increase as high as £215 for owners of the most expensive houses in Band H.
A big chunk of the increase is designed to help fund a £1billion boost for the police as forces struggle to crackdown on violence in Wild West Britain. Many believe the funding
increase is essential, with the number of crimes recorded by police having risen to 5.6million, the highest for more than a decade.
Communities Secretary James Brokenshire announced in the Commons yesterday that as part of the local government funding settlement, town halls would be allowed to put up council tax by 3 per cent from April 2019 without the hurdle of holding a local referendum.
On top of this, he confirmed that some councils would be able to increase the levy by a further 2 per cent to pay for social care. Town halls can only put up the tax by this amount if they have not already increased this so- called ‘ social care precept’ by a total of 6 per cent over the past two years.
The Local Government Association said around half of councils have not done this, meaning they will be free to impose an additional rise.
On top of this, Home Secretary Sajid Javid announced that local police and crime commissioners would be allowed to double the ‘police precept’ on bills. For the average property it will rise from £12 to £24.
Overall funding available to the country’s forces next year is rising to £14billion – with council taxpayers paying more than half of the £970million increase.
Last night, John O’Connell of the Taxpayers’ Alliance warned that councils should look to trim spending before imposing the maximum increase available.
‘Councils always claim they are cut to the bone, but our research shows there are still numerous examples of wasteful spending and inefficiencies,’ he said. He also pointed out that although the police have called for more cash ‘we are witnessing a growing trend towards policing free speech on the internet and an obsession with stunts and political correctness’.
He added: ‘Taxpayers want their local police to focus their time and energy on tackling serious and violent crimes on the front line.’ Yesterday, Labour’s communities spokesman Andrew Gwynne attacked the overall increase, saying: ‘Today’s announcement means only two things for households: an inflation busting increase in council tax, and no end in sight for austerity.’
Lord Porter, chairman of the LGA, which represents town halls, said councils should have been given more money directly from the Government – and warned that many would still have to scale back services.
‘Next year will continue to be hugely challenging for all councils, who still face an overall funding gap of £3.2billion in 2019/20,’ he said.
As part of the announcement on police funding, Mr Javid said there would be another £161million for general policing, £59million extra to bolster the fight against terror, £153million to plug a pensions gap and £90million more to tackle organised crime.
Most police funding comes directly from the Government, but around 30 per cent is raised through the policing precept levy. Force chiefs have warned they are struggling to cope after deep funding cuts.
WHATEVER happened to the council tax ‘lock’ designed to stop bills increasing by excessive amounts unless approved by voters? Next April, rates can rise by 3 per cent. For the average band D property that’s £107 more, taking the total to as high as £1,778 next year.
Yes, there is an argument for increasing the funding for police forces struggling to cope with spiralling crime rates in Wild West Britain – but only if they spend it wisely. Similarly, there is little doubt that threadbare social care budgets need a boost.
But there is no justification whatever for increasing this iniquitous tax, which hits those on fixed incomes like pensioners the hardest. Especially at a time when the foreign aid budget is ballooning to more than £14billion a year – and small fortunes are lining the pockets of officials in corrupt regimes, or funding countries rich enough to have their own space programmes.