Two-thirds of councils cashing in with biggest bill hikes are Labour
THE Labour Party runs almost twothirds of authorities which raised council tax to the maximum amount of nearly five per cent this year.
Analysis by The Mail on Sunday has found that 51 Labour councils ramped up charges to the limit of 4.99 per cent – more than 12 times the inflation rate of 0.4 per cent.
They include Nottingham City Council, which now has the highest tax bill in the country at £2,226. It raised bills after squandering £38 million on a failed bid to run its own power company, Robin Hood Energy, which went bust this year.
Another Labour council claiming the maximum amount is Luton, which had a £35 million Government bailout amid claims of years of poor financial management.
Last night, campaigners accused town halls of cashing in after Chancellor Rishi Sunak allowed them to increase council tax by up to 4.99 per cent to meet the growing costs of adult social care.
Of 89 English councils opting to raise prices to the maximum, 51 were Labour, 29 were Tory and nine were controlled by the Liberal Democrats, Greens or coalitions.
Harry Fone, grassroots campaign manager for the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: ‘Taxpayers are sick to the back teeth of unfair inflationbusting council tax rises.
‘Many households are suffering huge financial losses due to the pandemic. Adding insult to injury, local authorities have hammered them with even bigger bills.
‘Councils must make every penny count in order to stop these hikes and ease the tax burden on millions of people.’
Of the 343 councils in England only 147 can raise taxes by 4.99 per cent because they provide adult social care. The Government lets them impose three per cent on top of the council tax limit of 1.99 per cent. A local referendum is usually required for a council to raise the tax by two per cent or more.
The average bill for a typical Band D home is now £1,898 – up £80 on last year and almost a third higher than a decade ago.
A total of 104 districts will charge more than £2,000, compared with only 36 last year. For the most expensive Band H homes in these areas, it will be more than £4,000.
Much of the increase has been caused by Ministers passi ng responsibility for raising funds for social care to town halls, rather than increasing Whitehall grants. Council chiefs claim they are facing funding pressures after their finances were hit hard during the Covid crisis following ten years of cuts from central government.
But a Government spokesman said last night: ‘We’ve committed over £36 billion to help councils support communities and businesses during the pandemic. We’re also providing councils with £670 million of new grant funding to enable them to continue reducing council tax bills for those least able to pay, including households financially hard hit by the pandemic.’
The Local Government Association, which represents local authorities, said they had to raise the tax by five per cent because the levy makes up 85 per cent of their budget. A spokesman added: ‘This leaves the tough choice about whether to increase bills to bring in desperately needed funding to protect services when we are acutely aware of the significant burden that could place on some households.’
Some MPs want a property tax levied at 0.48 per cent of house values to replace council charges. This would cut bills across much of the country, except in areas such as London where the charges would rise.