Council Tax 2 December 2022 at 1:30PM in Cutting tax 15 replies 447 views

NRB22

I would like some advice about cost of living and council tax. We like everyone have cut our energy usage to save on energy bills, however one of the big household bills we have is council tax, and one cannot reduce usage to control the level of that bill. I am worried about the fact that this tax is able to increase by 5% in April next year and households have no control over it.

I realise that council tax pays for essential services, but there are also some non-essential things that my local town council and county council are planning to spend money on soon which are not huge expenditures, but something I don't deem to be absolutely essential and urgent at this present time. These include new cycle lanes, renovating play areas and bandstands and reconfiguring their website. These things are very useful and important but could be delayed for a year or two. I feel that regardless of the source of funding for these projects, with people struggling to simply heat their homes and buy groceries it is inappropriate to be spending on anything right now which is not an absolute requirement.

Whenever I have contacted the departments in charge of various improvement projects around the town, they do not seem interested in saving money and when I have contacted my local MP, they tell me that local authority spending is not controlled by the government. It is concerning to me that councils are not being as diligent as they could be with trying to keep the upcoming rise in council tax in April as low as it could possibly be by only spending on essential services. 

Is there anywhere I can go to try and encourage my local council to prioritise spending on essential services only and to try and limit the rise in council tax next April?

Albermarle

You  could try and get elected as a councillor.

Jeremy535897

Organise a protest, or maybe move.

frugalmacdugal

Hi,

you maybe use facilities that others don't use, how would you feel if they campaigned to get them stopped?

 

lincroft1710

As a lone individual there is practically nothing you can do.


You could try and organise a petition, but as most councils have at least 30,000 homes, some with over 100,000, you will have an awful lot of work to do and it would probably cost you more than the CT rise, 

NRB22

Jeremy535897 said:

Organise a protest, or maybe move.

lincroft1710 said:

As a lone individual there is practically nothing you can do.


You could try and organise a petition, but as most councils have at least 30,000 homes, some with over 100,000, you will have an awful lot of work to do and it would probably cost you more than the CT rise, 

Both, I did actually try and create a government petition but they told me that it doesn’t meet criteria because the government has no control over local authority spending.

It’s not so much my personal situation that concerns me, obviously it is tight for everyone right now including my household, but it is people who I know of who are really struggling and having to use credit cards just to live that really worries me. Their priority is food and heating not a renovated play area.

NRB22

frugalmacdugal said:

Hi,

you maybe use facilities that others don't use, how would you feel if they campaigned to get them stopped?

 

I’m not wanting the council to reduce services, I’m wanting them to delay improvement and infrastructure projects in order to save money so that the rise does not need to be quite as much. 

I use a lot of services in my town including the parks, my issue is the council spending on renovating the parks when that renovation could be delayed for a year or two to save money.

My local council are at least only spending on small renovation projects, I know that Nottinghamshire County Council are spending 15.7M on new offices in the new year!

lincroft1710

NRB22 said:

Jeremy535897 said:

Organise a protest, or maybe move.

lincroft1710 said:

As a lone individual there is practically nothing you can do.


You could try and organise a petition, but as most councils have at least 30,000 homes, some with over 100,000, you will have an awful lot of work to do and it would probably cost you more than the CT rise, 

Both, I did actually try and create a government petition but they told me that it doesn’t meet criteria because the government has no control over local authority spending.

It’s not so much my personal situation that concerns me, obviously it is tight for everyone right now including my household, but it is people who I know of who are really struggling and having to use credit cards just to live that really worries me. Their priority is food and heating not a renovated play area.

If you try and create a petition you have to address it to the correct body, i.e. the council.


Also if your council is a non-unitary authority, then you may have to create more than one petition.


Two further points. The financial situation may not improve for some years, so any deferred expenditure may not take place for some years and when it does will probably cost more because of inflation

.

Jeremy535897

Using the same logic as Nicola Sturgeon, you could have a democratic vote in the household and declare independence for your home. I would love to be able to do that!

NRB22

lincroft1710 said:

NRB22 said:

Jeremy535897 said:

Organise a protest, or maybe move.

lincroft1710 said:

As a lone individual there is practically nothing you can do.


You could try and organise a petition, but as most councils have at least 30,000 homes, some with over 100,000, you will have an awful lot of work to do and it would probably cost you more than the CT rise, 

Both, I did actually try and create a government petition but they told me that it doesn’t meet criteria because the government has no control over local authority spending.

It’s not so much my personal situation that concerns me, obviously it is tight for everyone right now including my household, but it is people who I know of who are really struggling and having to use credit cards just to live that really worries me. Their priority is food and heating not a renovated play area.

If you try and create a petition you have to address it to the correct body, i.e. the council.


Also if your council is a non-unitary authority, then you may have to create more than one petition.


Two further points. The financial situation may not improve for some years, so any deferred expenditure may not take place for some years and when it does will probably cost more because of inflation

.

That is true we may see difficulty for some years to come, who knows?

Thank you for the information. Do councils have their own petition website or do I use something like change.org?

NRB22

Jeremy535897 said:

Using the same logic as Nicola Sturgeon, you could have a democratic vote in the household and declare independence for your home. I would love to be able to do that!

Very funny, yes I could do that!