Council to approve 4.9% tax bills rise
COUNCIL tax bills are due to rise 4.9% in Halton as the local authority continues to struggle with the impact of budget cuts and a ‘crisis’ in social care.
Executive board members have been asked to approve the rise today at the Municipal Building.
The rise comprises a 3% rise in the social care precept and a 1.9% increase in council tax, thus avoiding a public referendum that would have been triggered at 2%.
It means that a Band D household will pay £61.30 more per year.
Planned savings tabled for approval at today’s meetings included the closures of Halton Direct Link offices except for their cash desks in Ditton and Runcorn Old Town and 25% axed from the area forum budget.
The council hopes to save cash by not filling vacant roles and a £200,000 reduction in staff pension contributions in 2017-18.
Although job losses are predicted, it is aiming to avoid compulsory redundancies.
The total budget for 2017-18 has been set at £102.7m, with funding gap of £23.46m forecast for 2018-21.
Cllr Rob Polhill, Halton Borough Council leader, said the Government has encouraged councils to implement a levy a social care precept to plug budget cuts.
He warned that a budget gap of about £13m has been forecast for the next three years, but that this was happening at the same time as rising costs because of inflation and financial pressures from enacting national policies such as the living wage and apprenticeship levy.
Halton has been included in the Liverpool City Region pilot scheme to retain 99% of business rates from 2017, up from 49%, and this will mean Halton’s income will be tied more tightly to rates income, rising or falling accordingly.
Cllr Polhill said that as part of the initiative the Government will no longer pay Halton the revenue support grant or Improved Better Care Fund grant pound for pound with how much more it receives in business rates, creating a net effect of nil initially.
He said that the risk lay in the future and whether business rates went up or down, in particular if companies appealed against their valuation classifications and these were brought down. ●
Cllr Polhill added that the c council had not been allowed to b benefit from an efficiency drive made before 2010 and, because of Government policy, would h have had more cash now had it n not bothered.
The Labour councillor said that H Halton residents paid among the lowest rates of council tax and that increasing the council tax rate would not generate as much income in areas with lower concentrations of Band A properties.
He added that councils of all political persuasions are facing a ‘crisis’ in social care funding, but stressed that Halton would fulfil its statutory duties.
He blasted changes to council tax incomes as ‘unfair’, saying that Cheshire East would end up receiving more cash while Halton lost out.
Nor is the end in sight for the squeeze on the council’s coffers, he said, although the local authority is looking at ways to generate income.
Cllr Polhill said: “I don’t think we’re through the worst of it. What’s amazed me is it’s not just Labour councils saying this, it’s all councils. Social care is in crisis, health care is in crisis. They’re not getting the funding.
“It’s alright them saying ‘we’ve given powers to put council tax up’, which is taking off people who have already paid. Our council tax markets are down.
“It doesn’t stack up, we’re still short, it raises about a million but we’re still about £3m short.
“If you go to Cheshire East, they make on that – it’s not a level playing field.
“It’s unfair the way they’re doing this, I’m surprised no-one’s criticised them more. Social care is so important.
“There doesn’t seem to be any signs of them stopping these cuts.
“They say ‘we’ve given them more money in the Better Care Fund’, but what they did is take the money away from the New Homes Bonus.
“All you’re getting is recycled money.
“They say they’ve given you this, given you that, but it’s still a cut, it’s nothing extra at all.
“It’s so concerning.”