Council tax bombshell will see households hit by £523 extra on their bills

18 February 2024 , 13:14

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Many local councils are teetering on the brink after cuts to Government funding (Image: Getty Images)

Households face a £523 tax bombshell as the amount taken in council tax is on course to have more than doubled since the Tories came to power.

Figures buried in Office for Budget Responsibility documents suggest families will be forced to pay the price as local authorities teeter on the brink.

The annual amount raised from council tax is due to reach more than £57.4billion by 2028, which will be more than twice the £25.3billion it stood at in 2009 when Gordon Brown was PM. An analysis by Labour, shows this will work out as an average £523 extra per household when adjusted for inflation.

It comes as millions of households in England are expected to see their council tax bills rise in April. Most local authorities are set to increase rates by 5%, which would add around £100 to a typical band D council tax bill.

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Many councils have been forced to make cuts to services - including social care, libraries and bin collections - after they have been hit by dramatic cuts to the funding they get from central Government in the past 14 years. Birmingham, Nottingham and Woking councils are among those that have declared themselves effectively bankrupt, with warnings others are on the brink.

Angela Rayner said the Tories have “left working people paying more for less, with the council tax bill set to double since Labour was last in government”. The Labour Deputy Leader said: “After 14 years of economic mismanagement, any blame for a rise in council tax lies squarely with this Conservative government.

“Rishi Sunak’s raw deal has left working people worse off and seeing the services they rely on crumbling around their ears. Taxpayers counting the costs of this £57billion Tory bombshell while councils have been hollowed out by 14 years of failure. Labour is under no illusions about the scale of the problems we'd inherit if we win the election when it comes to the crisis in local government.”

Ms Rayner added: “There is no magic wand but instead a long, hard slog to work with councils to rebuild from the ground up to deliver the services taxpayers need and deserve. A Labour government will start by providing integrated, long term funding settlements to local leaders, giving them greater certainty and the ability to plan for the long-term.”

John Stevens