Plans to freeze council tax bills in England next year will go ahead it has been confirmed today. The tax freeze comes as town hall chiefs made the decision to cut services rather than passing on the cost of slashed budgets to home owners.
This move means that as a direct result of inflation, families who find themselves in a Band D property at the moment who paid £1,439 last year, will now be better off by around £72, or even by just under £300 of the freeze follows the government plan through till 2015.
The news is a small victory for the Coalition Government and means that every local authority in England will not be swayed by the pressure to put up bills. This will go ahead despite the expected drop in funding by an average of 5.5% next year.
Instead of putting up taxes, cuts will now be made in all areas of local funding including leisure centres and local libraries. This cut comes despite calls by ministers to protect important frontline services that many local people simply cannot do without.
It is important to remember that whilst the Government can put forward a very persuasive argument for the idea, they actually do not have the power to impose a council tax freeze on all local authorities. That being said, George Osborne, the Chancellor has used last year’s Comprehensive Spending Review as a powerful tool and an incentive to get people on board.
The Comprehensive Spending Review invited councils to share in a £650 million grant pot designed to allow the bills to be frozen but would only be available to those who signed up to the agreement.
The plan is for the grants to be available every year until the current parliament ends, clocking up a total of £2.5 billion by 2015.
A survey by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) due to be released today, proved that councils across England have signed up to become a part of the Government’s cash freeze initiative, therefore many of us could see our council tax bills frozen.
However, in order to fund the freeze many local councils will have to make new efforts to reduce in-house budgets and even get rid of some frontline services.
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