COUNCIL TAX
On 1 April, millions of households in the UK will get poorer. Councils, desperately fighting to balance the books, plan to raise council tax as high as they can. Towns and cities are bankrupt and local government – the unglamorous web of bin collections, social care, and education that keeps the country running – is falling apart. Over half of council leaders in England warn their authorities are likely to go bust within the next parliament. And the most vulnerable will bear the brunt.
If you’re lucky enough to live in an area without a bankrupt council, you’re likely to be £100 worse off. Council tax hikes are normally limited to 4.99% in England for councils with social care duties. For an average Band D property, this would mean an increase from £2,065 to £2,168, Any further increase requires a referendum. As a crisis grips local government, councils have been given government permission to go beyond this. The wave of bankruptcies across England means many will be hit even harder. Residents of Slough will see an 8.5% increase, Woking a 10% increase, Thurrock an 8% increase, and Birmingham (right) 21% over two years.
However, council tax is not going up across the board. Scottish first minister Humza Yousaf has said he hopes that Scotland’s local authorities will freeze the levy. Offset by a £209 million pot of extra money for councils, it has proved controversial, with local authorities saying this funding does not cover the freeze. Argyll and Bute was the first council to rebel, with its councillors voting through a 10% increase.
Yet the SNP’s finance secretary Shona Robinson has argued that poorer families pay proportionately more of their income on council tax, and so lose out when rates rise. To cover the costs, the SNP will increase income tax on those earning more than £125,000.
A tax that can put you in prison
For those on the edge of poverty, it is unlikely to be money going spare. Councils do provide some support for the vulnerable, but they also imprison those who do not pay. Non-payment of council tax can carry a sentence of up to three months. A total of 80 people were jailed in the five years to 2023.
Charity law practice Appeal believes the phenomenon may be “one of the largest mass miscarriages of justice in British history”, with between 9.5% and 18% of those sent to prison for non-payment unlawfully imprisoned. Scotland and Northern Ireland do not jail people for non-paymen
