Council tax hike to pay wage bill

Council tax bills for residents across South Holland will rise by at least five per cent.

Members of Lincolnshire County Council are looking to implement a budget of £639.1 million – almost six per cent more than last year, writes Local Democracy Reporter Ellis Karran.
A meeting of the council’s executive discussed the budget on Tuesday, with the spending plan for the coming year. Councillors were told of £60m of ‘pressures’, including inflation and a ‘bolt from the blue’ raise in the National Living Wage.
Residents now face the maximum amount the county can raise the bill with no referendum.
And South Holland District Council is yet to reveal its budget, and any tax rise for the coming year.
With just the county increase, the average Band D bill will be £1,578, plus the district, parish and police precepts.
That would be an increase of £55.06 a year just for the county council.
“Keeping in mind the pressure that households are under, in particular with inflation and other things going on, we want to try and keep the council tax as low as possible,” said leader Martin Hill.
“In Lincolnshire we have one of the lowest council taxes in the country, but even so, although we could go up to five per cent without a referendum, we initially thought we’d be able to keep it lower than five per cent to try and help residents and households,” he said.
Coun Hill said the government’s ‘surprise’ announcement of a rise in the National Living Wage at the end of last year had affected the bills.
While describing the increase as ‘great’, Coun Hill said an extra £6m would be needed to cover the cost.
He said the government’s long-term plan to reduce funding in the future was also a consideration.
He added that the ‘vast majority’ of councils will be looking for a five per cent increase.
But he reassured residents that Lincolnshire council tax will still remain ‘very low’ in comparison to other places.
The county council takes by far the biggest amount of the annual Council Tax bill, followed by the district, police and parish.
The county’s executive member for economic development, Coun Colin Davie, sad the government had never ‘really favoured places like Lincolnshire.’
“Any year where there’s an election, there’s going to be uncertainty. We have no guarantee of funding going forward, there are different priorities if there’s a change of government and quite honestly, I don’t think my government (Conservative) has particularly looked after us in places like Lincolnshire,” he said.
“I think we need to be very clear that if we’re going to have a well-managed authority, which we do, people expect us to get good services at a sensible price. We don’t waste money, we’re very good at cutting out waste and getting services delivered.”