Council Tax Maths

mar7t1n

Council Tax bills are coming out this week. The councils are playing a game. They claim it's only going up 5% if you just read the headline figure and put it away you are likely being fobbed off.

I have no idea how they get to this number because £2158.44 to £2,335.06 is 8.18%, not 5%.

Check yours here: https://www.calculatorsoup.com/calculators/algebra/percentage-increase-calculator.php

eskbanker

mar7t1n said:

Council Tax bills are coming out this week. The councils are playing a game. They claim it's only going up 5% if you just read the headline figure and put it away you are likely being fobbed off.

I have no idea how they get to this number because £2158.44 to £2,335.06 is 8.18%, not 5%.

Likewise, nobody on here can comment on where numbers have come from based on that - which council are you referring to, and are they actually claiming that the figures you're quoting are a 5% increase (when that's obviously not true)?

sheramber

Is it any of theses councils?

https://moneyweek.com/personal-finance/tax/council-tax-bill-hikes#:~:text=Households will see an above,broader cost of living crisis.

However, there are four effectively bankrupt councils that have been given special dispensation by central government to go further. Slough Borough Council, Thurrock Council and Woking Borough Council can all hike their rates by up to 10%. Birmingham City Council will hike its levy by 10% (£190 a year) this April, with another 10% increase earmarked for 2025/26.

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In Wales, where council tax is a responsibility of the devolved government in Cardiff, several councils are proposing even larger hikes. These range from 6.7% (Caerphilly County Borough Council) to 9.8% (Cyngor Sir Ynys Môn or Anglesey County Council).

blue.peter

Context matters.

I don't know if it's relevant in this case, but councils will sometimes say that the council tax is increasing by a certain percentage, whilst there are other elements collected with it that increase by a different percentage. These are things like:

Police and Crime Commissioner

Fire & Rescue Service

Parish Council precept.

The overall percentage change can therefore be different from the actual council tax increase.

For example:

Council Tax  increase: 5.0%

Police & Crime: 6.2%

Fire & Rescue: 6.3%

Parish Council: 43.8%

Overall change: 9.3%

So the collecting council can legitimately claim that the council tax has increased by 5%, but the actual amount that the payer has to find is 9.3% higher.

(The figures above are from my council tax bill last year.)

Brie

I was surprised when I saw someone's CT bill and one line on it stated that the council tax for their part of town (3 councils had combined) was being raised by 58%.  Completely bizarre.

Grumpy_chap

mar7t1n said:

Council Tax bills are coming out this week. The councils are playing a game. They claim it's only going up 5% if you just read the headline figure and put it away you are likely being fobbed off.

I have no idea how they get to this number because £2158.44 to £2,335.06 is 8.18%, not 5%.

Check yours here: https://www.calculatorsoup.com/calculators/algebra/percentage-increase-calculator.php

It is rather a mystery how any Council can keep the increase to 5%.

I actually received my bill today, so the paperwork is to hand:

• Total increase 5.72%
• Local Authority increase 2.99%
• Social Care increase 2%
• Regional Authority increase 8.58%

So, the LA gets only 3% (or 5% including social care). 

Does that mean all the Councils were massively overcharging in the past?

What pay rises are Council workforce (including via outsourced partners) receiving? 
Presumably more than 3% because they are not on strike.  
Are staff costs the largest element for LA expenditure?  I would expect that to be the case.

I don't want to pay more so the prudent management to achieve the total increase at <6% is appreciated.  
Nor do I want the Council to fail.

If I understand correctly, the 5% cap on rises was set a good number of years back.  In reality, it probably needs to be a higher increase in the current year.  Unless, of course, there is some magic behind the scenes that allows a far higher increase to be presented as 5%.

ZeroSum

Grumpy_chap said:

mar7t1n said:

Council Tax bills are coming out this week. The councils are playing a game. They claim it's only going up 5% if you just read the headline figure and put it away you are likely being fobbed off.

I have no idea how they get to this number because £2158.44 to £2,335.06 is 8.18%, not 5%.

Check yours here: https://www.calculatorsoup.com/calculators/algebra/percentage-increase-calculator.php

It is rather a mystery how any Council can keep the increase to 5%.

I actually received my bill today, so the paperwork is to hand:

• Total increase 5.72%
• Local Authority increase 2.99%
• Social Care increase 2%
• Regional Authority increase 8.58%

So, the LA gets only 3% (or 5% including social care). 

Does that mean all the Councils were massively overcharging in the past?

What pay rises are Council workforce (including via outsourced partners) receiving? 
Presumably more than 3% because they are not on strike.  
Are staff costs the largest element for LA expenditure?  I would expect that to be the case.

I don't want to pay more so the prudent management to achieve the total increase at <6% is appreciated.  
Nor do I want the Council to fail.

If I understand correctly, the 5% cap on rises was set a good number of years back.  In reality, it probably needs to be a higher increase in the current year.  Unless, of course, there is some magic behind the scenes that allows a far higher increase to be presented as 5%.

Council staff got a flat rate of £1925 accriss the board. So probably an average of about 6%

Staffing possibly will be up there, but payments to social care providers won't be far behind.

Whilst 5% sounds low to maintain the services, that's because it is, and that's why services are being cut.

Organgrinder

There is a lot more to consider when looking at how much Council Tax goes up.

In Wales the Welsh Government did not increase local gov funding across the board. Some councils got less and as a result council tax had to rise. Where I live it was almost 10%.

Penguin_

Organgrinder said:

There is a lot more to consider when looking at how much Council Tax goes up.

In Wales the Welsh Government did not increase local gov funding across the board. Some councils got less and as a result council tax had to rise. Where I live it was almost 10%.

Aye we've got over 16% rise this year.

BooJewels

I was already quite happy with mine, as I was expecting more, but at +4.76% (£7 per month) I seem to have come off especially lightly.  The 'how it was arrived at' figures range from 2% to 4.8% - the District Council itself has only gone up 3% - which doesn't sound enough to me, without cutting services.

flo22

24% increase in Cheshire East