
The government is allowing six local authorities to raise council tax by more than the maximum amount this year.
It’s no secret councils are strapped for cash, struggling to provide basic services while demand increases and running costs spiral.
Specific weak points lie with the failure across adult and children’s social care and special educational needs services.
Inevitably, it means council tax must go up - but in some places it seems, much more than others.
For Windsor, Maidenhead, Birmingham, Bradford, Newham, Somerset and Trafford, the government is going further to allow them "bespoke additional council tax flexibility" which could see a rise of up to 9%.
Last year, four of these councils were given permission by Michael Gove as part of an "exceptional financial support package" to go beyond the threshold, but this year a record number of councils asked to do this - with Windsor asking for a 25% increase.
How do council tax rises work?
In order to keep up with demands, councils are allowed to raise council tax usually by up to 5%, broken down into 3% core spending with an additional 2% for social care.
At the moment, a principle exists which prevents more than a 5% increase to council tax without a referendum, mostly to protect taxpayers from excessive increases.
But if a council is already in conversation with government on exceptional financial support, and if the government agrees to allow the council to raise tax above the cap as part of this, the council doesn’t necessarily have to take that to a local public vote.
Tories blamed for ’financial legacy’
The government also announced today an injection of cash for council budgets of £69bn, which it says in real terms is a 6.8% cash increase in core spending power.
It says the "financial legacy of the previous government has resulted in a record number of councils engaging with the government about support", and insist the decision was not taken lightly.
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