Council tax set to increase by 1.99 per cent

WEST Berkshire Council is proposing to increase council tax by a ‘very modest’ 1.99 per cent this spring – but there will be no cuts to public services for the second consecutive year.

The council has so far received £9.5m of Government funding, which it says has covered around 75 per cent of the income it has lost throughout the coronavirus pandemic.

However, even with that financial support, the local authority has still been left with a £3.7m funding shortfall, which will be found through a combination of income generation and ‘internal efficiencies’.

The council has confirmed it is not proposing to make any redundancies in the next financial year, but will instead look at more efficient ways of working, including the digitalisation of more of its services.

The local authority is allowed to put council tax up by a maximum of 1.99 per cent every year without holding a referendum. It also has the ability to increase the adult social care precept – which appears on the council tax bill and goes directly towards funding services for the vulnerable and elderly – by 2.99 per cent too.

However, it has proposed not to do the latter – mainly because it has spent £2m less than expected in adult social care due to the excess deaths in West Berkshire care homes from Covid-19.

The council’s executive member for finance Ross Mackinnon said that “sadly the number of deaths had led to a reduced demand for the service and therefore reduced costs”.

In total, the council spent £3.4m less than it budgeted for last year.

However, some of these savings were offset by a loss of income.

The most significant of these losses has been from car parking revenue.

Altogether, the council has lost out on £1.7m of parking money since April 2020, with that figure potentially rising higher by the time the current financial year ends in March.

Speaking to the Newbury Weekly News, Mr Mackinnon said: “We recognise that it has been a hell of a year for residents and we are pleased to announce what is a very modest council tax rise overall.”

When asked if he felt it was appropriate to introduce any sort of council tax rise at a time when many people were struggling financially, he said: “I do sympathise with residents because times are really hard at the moment.

“As always with these things, it’s about trying to get the balance right.

“A big factor you have to take into account when setting a budget is the rate of inflation.

“If you freeze council tax, which we’d love to do, you end up potentially being in a precarious position where you need to make savings and cut services in future years because you’ve fallen behind and not budgeted correctly.”

Mr Mackinnon added that it was “the first time for many years that we have not had to put council tax up by the maximum amount”.

He said: “What we are doing, essentially, is taking that underspend in adult social care and putting it towards a lower than usual increase in council tax.”

The money it receives from council tax – £94.7m – represents two thirds of the council’s entire income.

The remainder of the £139.1m budget is made up of retained business rates, social care funding and other grants.

The proposed budget for 2021/22 will go before the council’s executive committee next

Tuesday, before being discussed, debated and voted on at the full council meeting in March.

Meanwhile, Thames Valley Police has had its request to increase the precept – the part of the council tax bill it collects to spend on policing – by the maximum amount allowed.

It means the force’s share of the council tax will go up by almost seven per cent.

This equates to an increase of £15 for the average Band D property.

The police and crime commissioner for the Thames Valley, former West Berkshire councillor Anthony Stansfeld, said he would “rather not put the precept up at all”, but added it was needed to provide additional police officers across the region.