posted on 28 March 2017, updated on 28 March 2017
Nine out of ten local authorities in England will increase their council tax bills from April, a survey has found, reinforcing findings from CIPFA released earlier in March.
Residents in some parts of the country will see their bills go up by as much as 5%, as councils make use of new powers to top up their charges with a specific 3% levy for social care. Only 22 of England’s 353 local authorities are freezing council tax in 2017/18, while just one – East Hampshire – has said it is cutting the amount.
The figures show a contrasting picture to 2012/13, when 90% of councils froze or cut council tax, with just 35 choosing to raise it that year.
Claire Kober, chair of the Local Government Association’s resources board, said:
Councils continue to have to make difficult decisions about which services are scaled back or stopped altogether to plug funding gaps. Amid these ongoing funding pressures, many councils find themselves unable to turn down the chance to raise desperately needed money for local services.
Council tax rises are unlikely to prevent the need for continued cutbacks to local services. Cost pressures associated with homelessness and temporary accommodation, and children’s and adult social care, remain particularly acute.
Plugging growing funding gaps must be a priority for government to allow councils to continue to deliver much valued local services.
However, the Department for Communities and Local Government said councils had “almost £200bn available to them over four years” and should continue to work on delivering savings to protect frontline services.
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