COUNCIL TAX RATE INCREASE

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Families face a 4% rise in council tax next year. The increase of £1billion was revealed in the small print of Alistair Darling’s Pre-Budget Report. The report shows the total council tax paid in the UK will rise from an expected £24.8billion this year to £25.8billion in 2010-11. Ministers insist, however, that the council tax figures are just “projections based on assumptions” and deny that cuts in services will be required. A Communities and Local Government department spokesman said, “The council tax figure is merely drawn from past trends and cannot be used to predict council tax rises. Total tax take is not comparable with levels of bills as it reflects rising collection rates by councils and increased numbers of dwellings. We expect next year’s rises to be the lowest in 16 years and we won’t hesitate to cap excessive increases if necessary.” (Source: Daily Express, Dec/09)

Council tax bills are rising to pay for a growing army of fatcat pen-pushers earning more than £50,000 a year. Figures show there are now 30,000 middle managers in town halls across Britain receiving almost double the average national wage. They are costing their councils about £4million a year, equivalent to over £20 for every household. Local authorities insist that their staff are highly skilled and that taxpayers are getting value for money but the total annual wage bill for the fatcats now stands at £2billion, up from only £207million when Labour came to power a decade ago.

The TaxPayers’ Alliance figures reveal that local authorities across the UK are now employing an average of 66 middle-ranking managers on lucrative packages worth more than £50,000 a year. Figures taken from councils’ annual records showed that officials getting deals worth £50,000 or more, including bonuses and benefits but not pension contributions, rose from an estimated 3,341 in 1996-7 to 30,889 in 2006-7.

John Ransford, deputy chief executive of the Local Government Association which represents more than 400 councils in England and Wales, trotted out that old chestnut, "To attract the best and brightest people to deliver value for money, you have to pay a suitable wage. Councils are responsible for ensuring that more than £100billion of taxpayers’ money is spent wisely and provides the services local people want and need." (Source: Daily Express, Jan/08)

Council tax is set to rise by 5% for each of the next three years. This means people in Band A properties are set to pay more than £800 after Derby City Council announced its budget plans. Despite the rise the council still needs to find an extra £6.7m to run its services in 2007-8. It plans to cut its budget by 10% by April 2010, starting next year when it proposes £5m of savings. Job cuts, axing grants to organisations, increasing the cost of meals on wheels and charges at day centres, and raising ticket prices at the Assembly Rooms and the Guildhall are among the proposals to gain more money.

Council leader Chris Williamson said, "We do have that gap that needs to be filled but that's why we're consulting. It may be that there are planned spends in the document which people do not think are necessary or it may be that there are savings to be made elsewhere. There is a cost to all of this, but it's a price worth paying."

The extra costs the council plans to take on include paying for job evaluations to ensure fairness of pay as a result of the Equal Pay Act. This has forced councils to arrange settlements for workers in roles predominantly held by women, like cooks and cleaners, who have been paid less than men in jobs deemed to require equal levels of skill, like refuse collectors. Another £2.5m has been put aside to spend on development projects, such as planned improvements to the Market Place, the Sir Peter Hilton Gardens, The Spot and Osnabruck Square, as well as the proposal to create new civic offices for the authority. (Source: Derby Evening Telegraph, Jan/07)

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