Mystery donor gives £100k to help homeless
WESTMINSTER City Council’s leader says she is “blown away” by a mystery donor who gave £10,000 toward the authority’s “wealthy mansion tax” scheme to fund projects including helping rough sleepers.
The donation was made in November, but the London council will not shed light on who gave its charitable fund the cash without their permission to reveal their identity.
This year is the first in which the council has asked occupants of the borough’s most expensive homes to give donations voluntarily on top of their regular council tax, in an idea that has attracted a wide degree of attention.
The Conservative council’s leader Nickie Aiken last year introduced it as a way to collect funds for community projects without having to raise council tax across the board, which would also hit less well-off households.
Asked about the mystery donation, Cllr Aiken said: “I was blown away by the generosity. It shows that there are lots of Band H property owners who are fully behind this scheme.”
As of November 2018, the scheme had raised £426,529, for the community contribution pot, given by a number of occupants of Westminster’s 15,600 Band H properties.
The council said the average donation is above the suggested amount of £833. Cllr Aiken has said the scheme provides a way for wealthier homeowners to pay more without hitting the pockets of less well-off residents in the lower bands.
Band H properties are those valued at more than £320,000 in 1991. Their occupants were required to pay £832.54 in council tax to Westminster City Council, along with £588.46 to the Greater London Authority, in 2018.
Papers presented to councillors recently will show so far £60,000 has gone toward a scheme employing exrough sleepers to become outreach workers, £70,000 toward a grant fund for organisations with ideas for projects to help people off the streets, and £130,000 for grant funding for initiatives which support children into employment.
Proposals are also under way for ways to use the money to prevent loneliness in Westminster.
The council’s Labour group leader, Cllr Adam Hug, said he would wait and see if the same level of donations were achieved every year, warning the council may not be able to rely on it as a steady charitable stream.
“Any money is welcome but any money they are raising is a tiny fraction of what they’ve got to find in cuts and savings this [coming] year.”
The Labour opposition was calling upon the government to give local authorities powers to raise the higher bands of council tax without affecting lower-income bands, he said.