Revealed: The 81 Councils hiking Council Tax
Feb 2013 15

Revealed: The 81 Councils hiking Council Tax8

Below is a list of councils planning to hike Council Tax in 2013-14 according to either local media reports or council documents. There are currently 81 on our list and we will keep updating it. Please let us know if your council is planning a rise and is not on our list. If your council has previously announced an intention to raise Council Tax, but has reversed its decision, please let us know.

Ashford    3.55%
Aylesbury Vale    2%
Bolton     3.5%
Breckland    7.8%
Brighton and Hove     2%
Bristol    2%
Burnley BC     1.99%
Caerphilly    2.35%
Calderdale    2%
Cambridgeshire     1.99%
Cannock Chase    2%
Canterbury     1.99%
Carmarthenshire    2.75%
Chelmsford BC    1.98%
Cheshire West & Chester    1.9%
Chesterfield    2%/3/6%
Chichester DC     £5
Chiltern     1.9%
Christchurch    1.95%
Copeland    1.9%
Cornwall    1.97%
Coventry    2%
Dacorum    1.9%
Derby City Council    1.55%
East Cambridgeshire     2%
East Lindsey    4.4%
Elmbridge    1.95%
Exeter    4%
Gedling     3.4%
Gravesham    1.9%
Guildford BC     1.9%
Harlow     1.5%
Harrow    2%
Herefordshire     1.9%
Hull    1.95%
Huntingdonshire DC     3.63%
Ipswich    1.98%
Kingston upon Thames    1.99%
Kirklees    1.7%
Lancaster     2%
Liverpool     1.8%
Maidstone     1.9%
Maldon    1.99%
Manchester    3.7%
Medway Council     1.99%
Middlesbrough     2%
North Dorset DC     4.77%
North Hertfordshire DC     1.9%
North Somerset    1.5%
Norwich City Council    1.95%
Nottingham    1.95%
Oldham    3.5%
Oxfordshire    1.99%
Plymouth     2%
Poole    1.95%
Portsmouth     2%
Preston    2%
Reading    1.9%
Reigate and Banstead    2%
Richmondshire    1.5%
Rochdale    3.5%
Runnymede    3.62%
Sevenoaks    1.9%
South Cambridgeshire     4.3%
South Hams    3.5%
South Kesteven     4%
Southampton    2%
Southend on Sea    1.75%
Spelthorne    2%
Stockport     2.5%
Surrey    1.99%
Swansea    3.8%
Telford & Wrekin    1.9%
Torfaen    3.3%
Tunbridge Wells    1.9%
Wakefield     1.45%
West Berkshire Council     2%
West Devon BC    1.9%
Wigan    2%+
Woking     1.9%
York    1.9%

Reacting to to Councils Tax rises Matthew Sinclair, Chief Executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance said:

“Townhalls hiking Council Tax are placing an intolerable burden on already struggling families. These tax rises hit the poorest households the hardest and after a decade in which Council Tax nearly doubled the last thing taxpayers need are further hikes. The councils exploiting loopholes or planning increases just under the threshold to dodge referendums are showing utter contempt for local taxpayers. The majority of councils are freezing Council Tax, some are even cutting it. The rest should follow suit rather than picking peoples pocket’s once again.”

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  • blarg1987

    What would be interesting is seeing what funding those councils get per person comapred to those who are freezing or reducing council tax. Add to that what policies they have done to make effecencey savings that are reasonable (sacking everything and paying them penuts to reemploy them would not be reasonable).

    Following this what policies should these councils implement and what physical savings would they generate in the short, medium and longer term for tax payers? I ask longer term as alot of Councils have asset stripped which in the shorter term has frozen or reduced taxes but in the longer term has and will cost tax payers more as they are renting back or buying back these services.

  • tinamac

    is there not a Scottish list available?

    • Andrew Allison

      I will look into that.

  • Tiffin

    And what is more Woking in Surrey has increased charges for other services by more than the 1.9%. Some by 10%. The council has also increased debt to make it the most indebted council in the UK.
    It is spending more than ever. It is Conservative- God Help Us.

  • john in cheshire

    Related to this subject, I can’t help but notice that the condition of the roads in my part of our country is rapidly deteriorating. I have a feeling that this is deliberate and the councils are withholding funding for repair and resurfacing. If so, I suggest that it is a political ploy to try to counter any proposed reductions in council spending, by making their supposed consequences very visible to everyone. If I am correct, then how does one bring the councils to account? Is it possible that the amount each council has allocated for road repairs and maintenance the past few financial years, this financial year and for the next one, would be an indicator; ie. if there is a trend of falling budget allocation would this be an indicator of deliberate political manoeuvering?

    • blarg1987

      Simplist solution would be to do an FOI on how much money is spent on the roads over the last decade and see how much money it would cost to bring evry road up to standard. From that you can work out the number of years it would take and decide from that. Do not be suprised if it is decades or hundreds of years though.

  • Steve Collins

    No, what hits the poorest households the hardest is not a small percentage increase in council tax, it’s the withdrawl of council services that many of them depend on. Also, the majority of the ‘poorest households’ are in receipt of council tax benefit, so a rise would not impact them.
    John in cheshire: Perhaps the condition of the roads in your area is due to the winter weather which followed the wettest year since records began? I know that the roads in my part of the world are in quite a bad state too – it tends to happen about this time every year. But hey-ho, if paranoid delusion is more your thing, good luck to you.

    • tiffin

      Why can’t people writing comments be polite? This statement about paranoid delusion is very impolite.

      As it happens roads across Surrey are a mess too. They have been a mess for years and show little signs of improving. Cross to Hampshire or East Sussex and the roads are a damn sight better. This is all due to long term bad management of road maintenance by successive Conservative administrations (all this is well documented by groups like STAG). As a Conservative supporter this is very worrying. Not that I vote Conservative in council elections any more.
      As P J O’Rorke says “Don’t vote fort the b******s it only encourages them”.