Council Tax Is Set To Soar

Council tax bills could skyrocket next year under government plans to reduce the strain on public finances.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is looking at relaxing the decade-long cap that presently allows town halls to increase their annual bills by just 2 per cent a year for their core services.

Although the move would not directly raise funds for the Treasury, officials believe it could allow Jeremy Hunt to squeeze central funding to local authorities, as they would then be able to make up the difference from local council taxpayers.

A government source told a newspaper outlet the idea was being examined as an option as ministers scramble to find £50 billion in tax rises and spending cuts by the time of the Budget on November 17.

The source said that it didn’t bring in money directly, but that if went ahead it would allow the Treasury to provide less money centrally, and that it was an option that was being examined.

The plan could allow local authorities to impose the first double-digit hikes in council tax for more than ten years.

Some ministers are resisting the move, asserting that it would pile pressure on families already facing the worst cost-of-living crunch in decades, but councils are pushing for the freedom to set their own bills without constraint, saying their ability to deliver core services was being eroded by inflation.

The Local Government Association (LGA) has warned ministers that councils face a £3.4 billion funding gap next year just to maintain services at pre-COVID levels.

In a submission to the Treasury, the LGA said that to fill the void using council tax alone, bills would have to increase by well over 10 per cent next year. The organisation, which represents councils across England and Wales, said rises on this scale would be neither sustainable nor desirable.

Despite this, it called for the existing cap on council tax increases to be rescinded to give them the power to raise more money to protect or enhance local services.

Under existing regulations, councils had to win a local referendum if they wanted to increase council tax by more than 2 per cent.

In recent years they have also been allowed to levy a precept for social care of between 1 and 3 per cent.

Last year, total average bills increased by 3.5 per cent.

The Treasury is now looking at options to increase the percentage rise at which authorities are required to win a referendum.

The existing 2 per cent cap could be increased to 5 per cent or more, although ministers are nervous about ditching it.

What this Government should start funding is the giant black hole we have by eliminating foreign aid and illegal immigrants, but of course, they have no intention of doing any of that, and Jeremy Hunt always has that smirking smile.

Council Tax should be only for the people who were born in this country and that the council serves, and it shouldn’t have any connection to Foreign Aid or immigrants et cetera. They should also reduce the House of Lords and any Royal expenses, and if the Royal Family want these extra indulgences they should be paid for by themselves.

Does Jeremy Hunt want us to sell the shirt off our backs too?

How on earth is anybody supposed to make ends meet with this joker taxing us dry?

Basically, he’s putting millions of people into serious financial misery, and if he allows the councils at a time like this to hike up Council Tax bills, where the councils will waste money as badly as our Government, then the Tories deserve every bit of punishment they get in the next General Election.