Council tax to rise by 4.9% for Halton residents
HALTON Council has approved a 4.9% hike to council tax bills. The borough’s executive board approved the hike, which comprises 1.9% general council tax and 3% for the social care precept.
It means a Band D property will pay £61.30 more per year towards an annual bill of £1,312.27.
Band A homes will pay an extra £40.87 per year or 79p a week, and Band B will pay £47.67 more a year, or 92p per week.
Cost-cutting moves in the budget included the closures of Halton Direct Link offices in Runcorn Old Town and Ditton in Widnes apart for their cash desks, and 25% chopped from local area forum funding.
The total budget for 2017-18 has been set at £102.7m with a funding gap of £23.46m forecast for 2018-21.
Halton Council has said it will try to avoid compulsory redundancies but it will try to save cash by not filling vacant roles.
Cheshire police and fire service had already approved precept increases of 2%.
A council tax rise of 2% or more would have triggered a referendum under Government rules, which do not cap the maximum amount council tax can be increased by, pending public backing.
Following the Halton budget’s approval, Halton Council deputy leader Cllr Mike Wharton took an apparent swipe at the Government over its alleged ‘gentleman’s agreement’ to help Surrey County Council by diverting other local authorities’ funding to Surrey to avoid a politically damaging 15% council tax rise referendum.
The supposed ‘sweetheart deal’ emerged after audio was leaked to the BBC in which Surrey Council’s leader David Hodge, Conservative, is reported to have divulged to other councillors that the ● council could ditch a proposed 15% council tax hike because of the Government deal.
Writing on the Halton Labour Party branch website, Cllr Wharton, Labour, Hale, slated Surrey’s 15% council tax hike as a ‘debacle’ and questioned whether ‘perhaps the secretary of state would be willing to offer Halton the same ‘gentleman’s agreement’!’
Cllr Wharton said Halton Council’s funding has been slashed by £57m between 2010-11 and 2017-18, adding that raising the social care precept will generate ‘nothing like enough’ funding.
Discussing the impact of raising council tax, he said: “As you know Halton has a very low tax base with 68% of our properties in bands A and B.
“Our council tax is currently the fourth lowest in the North West.
“If we were not to have a general increase in council tax, we would have to find a further £800,000 of budget savings and our tax base would be eroded even further.”