Almost all local authorities in England set to raise council tax, study finds

Council tax: most local authorities are planning a hike this year, a study has found
Shutterstock / Shaun Wilkinson

Nearly all local authorities in England plan to raise council tax in the year ahead while vital services remain under pressure, a survey has found.

Research showed that eight in 10 councils believe the current funding system is "unsustainable", with more than half, 53 per cent, planning to dip into their reserves.

More than a quarter, 29 per cent, said they were planning to cut spending on adult social care, with 24 per cent expecting reductions in children's care services.

Some 16 per cent said they planned to make cuts in special education and disability support, and 11 per cent in support for the homeless, according to the study.

The findings are based on the responses from 158 senior council figures, including leaders, chief executives and finance directors, representing 123 of the 353 English local authorities.

Overall the survey by the Local Government Information Unit (LGiU) and the Municipal Journal found 97 per cent of local authorities were planning to raise council tax in 2019-20, with three quarters set to increase it by more than 2.5 per cent.

In most areas, any increase of 3 per cent or more requires a local referendum.

Children's services and education was said to the area under the greatest immediate financial pressure by 36 per cent of councils, with 23 per cent pointing to adult social services.

Many community services were said to be facing cuts, with 45 per cent of councils planning reductions to parks and leisure, 38 per cent to roads, 32 per cent to libraries and 22 per cent to waste collection.

The report said that the cuts reflected a £16 billion drop in central government funding since 2011.

LGiU chief executive Jonathan Carr-West said councils had no option but to adopt "drastic measures" if they were to make ends meet.

"We know that council funding is broken. Councils are making do by increasing council tax as much as they can, increasing charging and dipping in to their reserves," he said.

"Even with these desperate measures they are having to reduce spending; not just on vital place-shaping services like leisure, libraries and parks but in core life-saving areas like social care and children's services."

The Local Government Association (LGA) said the forthcoming Government spending review would be "make or break" for many vital local services.

Richard Watts, the chairman of the LGA's resources board, said: "Many councils feel they have little choice but to ask residents to pay more council tax again this year to help them try and protect their local services.

"With councils facing a funding gap of more than £3 billion this year, council tax rises will not prevent the need for continued cutbacks to local services.

"If we truly value our local services then we have to be prepared to pay for them.

"Fully funding councils is the only way they will be able to keep providing the services which matter to people's lives."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in

MORE ABOUT