Town hall confirms 4.99% tax bill rise

PEOPLE in Rochdale will pay more in council tax from April.

A 4.99 per cent hike in the household precept has been agreed. Of that, 2pc will go towards adult social care. However there is some - relatively - good news for bill payers. Town hall bosses confirmed they’ll dip into their reserves to the tune of

£2.28m to cover 2pc of the rise to help people out.

It will mean, in effect, people will only face a

2.99pc rise. The council said it needs to raise the levy by the maximum level to ensure as much future funding from central government as possible.

The town hall needs to cover a £3.6m budget gap for 2024/5. Increase costs, inflation and increase in demand in children’s and adults’ services mean things are tight.

Declaring bankruptcy is still a long way off, council leader Neil Emmott told a meeting at Rochdale Town hall, adding: “Up and down the country we see other local authorities issuing Section 114 notices. Rochdale council is a million miles away from issuing a Section 114 as we have plenty of money to cover services where needed.

“I am proud to be able to give back this discount to every single household in the borough for the second year running. People would say ‘why not just put it up by 2.99 per cent? It is because if we don’t increase it as expected it would have a detrimental effect on our future funding.

“Despite austerity and our financial prudence, we have been able to offer good services to our residents. We have not closed one single library, one single community centre or one single children’s Sure Start centre in the borough.

“This is a budget that maintains and improves our frontline services and addresses the cost of living crisis by reducing the tax rise for every single member of the borough. We present it with our shoulders back and our heads held high.” The council tax rise will bring in £1.2m. Extra grant funding will cover the rest of the gap.

A Conservative amendment proposed £205,000 to bring back more school crossing patrols with reductions made for staffing of union reps, events and cost of publicity. This was rejected by a majority vote in the chamber.

●●HOW much tax each council tax property would have to pay annually from 2024/25 with the added Greater

Manchester precepts added on (5.01 per cent overall):

●●BAND A: £1,553.49 (up from £1,479.34)

●●BAND B: £1,812.40 (up from £1,725.91)

●●BAND C: £2,071.32 (up from £1,972.46)

●●BAND D: £2,330.24 (up from £2,219.03)

●●BAND E: £2,848.07 (up from £2,712.13)

●●BAND F: £3,365.90 (up from £3,205.26)

●●BAND G: £3,883.73 (up from £3,698.37)

●●BAND H: £4,660.48 (up from £4,438.06)