People living in Kingston face Council Tax hike
By adam_leone | Monday, January 21, 2013, 18:13
In a bid to protect public services, Kingston Council Leader, Derek Osbourne is raising Council Tax by nearly 2% across the borough.
It's two years since householders have seen an increase.
Those living in a Band D property will have to pay an extra 52p a week.
That would then be lowered to 45p.
Talking at Kingston Guildhall, Councillor Osborne said it's no longer sustainable to accept a Council Tax "bribe" from the Government.
He also said the future looks bleak, because there's less money coming into local authorities.
Other services such as Meals on Wheels could also see an increase in costs.
Kingston Council needs to find £17 million over the next 3 years to combat cuts from central government.
Financial service, Newton Europe has been employed to find £2.5 million pounds, to which it's being paid half that sum, should they identify the level of savings needed.
Osborne said: "The decision to freeze council tax was not taken lightly, but it comes as a cost."
"The government has funded council tax freezes, but when that falls out, you have to find the money from somewhere."
What do you think of a Council Tax increase? Is 52p a week extra council tax too much? Or too little?
Comments
The way in which central government has done this needs to be looked at carefully - they have given councils money to enable them to freeze council tax but this money is a one off grant rather than an income stream, meaning that if the central government handouts stop, councils would be contemplating much bigger rises simply to keep up with the inflation that had occurred during the years when they had frozen council tax. Councils have been placed in a very difficult position.
By majeedneky at 20:08 on 21/01/13
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