Council Tax Maths

sheramber

https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2024-02-05/hcws241

Today, I set out the final Local Government Finance Settlement for 2024-25. This makes available up to £64.7 billion for local authorities in England, an increase in Core Spending Power of up to £4.5 billion, or 7.5% in cash terms, an above-inflation increase, on 2023-24.

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The Government is committed to continuing to protect local taxpayers from excessive council tax increases. This Settlement confirms our intention for referendum principles of up to 3% for core council tax and up to 2% for the adult social care precept in 2024-25. These provisions are not a cap, nor do they force councils to set taxes at the threshold level. When taking decisions on council tax levels, I expect all Councillors, Mayors, Police and Crime Commissioners and local councils to take into consideration the pressures many households are facing and the need to control unnecessary and wasteful expenditure. I

dealyboy

I queried my Council Tax bill category increases, you might be interested in the reply.

From my bill: 

                                                             2023/24                                 2024/25                 % CHANGE

Herts County Council                           £929.57                                 £961.58                       3.0

North Herts DC                                    £168.31                                 £173.34                        3.0

*Herts CC Adult Social Care Precept  £140.85                                 £162.25                        2.0

Herts Police Authority                          £158.67                                 £167.33                        5.5

Gross Council Tax                             £1397.40                               £1464.50                        4.8

* Council Tax bills show two percentage changes: One for the part of the overall change attributable to the adult social care precept (2.00%) and one for the part attributable to general expenditure (2.99%).

From HCC IP & Financial Planning reply:

The increases you see on your council tax bill are governed by legislation: The Council Tax (Demand Notices) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2017.

You can access this legislation here: The Council Tax (Demand Notices) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2017 (legislation.gov.uk) 

The format prescribed in this legislation is followed by all authorities. 

The process followed by Hertfordshire County Council utilising this legislation is as follows:

Band A Property

Total CT for HCC (2023/24) = £929.57 + £140.85 = £1,070.42

Increase in CT for general expenditure = £1,070.42 x 2.99% = £32.01

Increase in CT for Adult Social Care Precept = £1,070.42 x 2% = £21.40

Total CT for HCC (2024/25) = £1,070.42 + £32.01 + £21.40 = £1,123.83


So in my terms, the Herts County Council element of Council Tax has an overall increase of 5% (4.99%), 60% of this is general expenditure and 40% Adult Social Care Precept, general expenditure is increasing by 3.4% and Adult Social Care Precept by 15.2%.

[Deleted User]

I'm guessing our bill is going up by circa £36 to cover increased water charges as the CT element appears identical.

Zanderman

[Deleted User] said:

I'm guessing our bill is going up by circa £36 to cover increased water charges as the CT element appears identical.

Water charges? Where does water come into Council Tax?

blue.peter

Zanderman said:

Water charges? Where does water come into Council Tax?

Scotland, I believe. See https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/scotland/consumer/water/paying-for-water-and-sewerage-in-scotland-s/ .

Picklejuice

I have a similar issue.
I live in Croydon and the Mayor sent out a letter along with the Council Tax bill saying he'd upheld his pledge to keep the Council Tax at 4.99%. It's 5% on the bill with the Croydon cost at 3% not 2.99%

I looked deeper into this and found that the increase for the Greater London Authority precept is in their documents (and presumably budget) at 8.58%.
This is 8.6% on the bill.
I cant post the full link but it's found at democracy.croydon.gov.uk/ieDecisionDetails.aspx?ID=2178#:~:text=1.5.,Adult%20Social%20Care%20precept%20levy.
Basic maths tells me that these figures are not the same.

If they were planning to round up the figures then why isn't that documented? Why are these numbers so specific?

I'm on the spectrum so please excuse me if there's a simple answer that makes sense but this feels dishonest and underhand to proclaim one figure but use another. It certainly doesn't feel moral.
Is this legal?
Who can I raise this discrepancy with?

Also is this extra 0.03% going?
It's not a large amount on a single bill but given that a recent census has Croydon at 150,100 households, it's a not insignificant amount of money to not have a place to go during the continual rises in the cost of living and energy rates.

Thank you

ColdIron

dealyboy said:

I queried my Council Tax bill category increases, you might be interested in the reply.

Lucky old you. Sadiq Khan has increased my GLA precept by 8.6%

dealyboy

@Coldiron said:

dealyboy said:

I queried my Council Tax bill category increases, you might be interested in the reply.

Lucky old you. Sadiq Khan has increased my GLA precept by 8.6%

What was last year's precept? this year's precept? and what is your overall CT increase percentage? ...out of interest.

ZeroSum

Picklejuice said:

I have a similar issue.
I live in Croydon and the Mayor sent out a letter along with the Council Tax bill saying he'd upheld his pledge to keep the Council Tax at 4.99%. It's 5% on the bill with the Croydon cost at 3% not 2.99%

I looked deeper into this and found that the increase for the Greater London Authority precept is in their documents (and presumably budget) at 8.58%.
This is 8.6% on the bill.
I cant post the full link but it's found at democracy.croydon.gov.uk/ieDecisionDetails.aspx?ID=2178#:~:text=1.5.,Adult%20Social%20Care%20precept%20levy.
Basic maths tells me that these figures are not the same.

If they were planning to round up the figures then why isn't that documented? Why are these numbers so specific?

I'm on the spectrum so please excuse me if there's a simple answer that makes sense but this feels dishonest and underhand to proclaim one figure but use another. It certainly doesn't feel moral.
Is this legal?
Who can I raise this discrepancy with?

Also is this extra 0.03% going?
It's not a large amount on a single bill but given that a recent census has Croydon at 150,100 households, it's a not insignificant amount of money to not have a place to go during the continual rises in the cost of living and energy rates.

Thank you

Have you calculated the actual increase to 2dps? As there's a chance that charge is the lower amount & just rounded the % on the bill

ColdIron

dealyboy said:

@Coldiron said:

dealyboy said:

I queried my Council Tax bill category increases, you might be interested in the reply.

Lucky old you. Sadiq Khan has increased my GLA precept by 8.6%

What was last year's precept? this year's precept? and what is your overall CT increase percentage? ...out of interest.

Band D Council Tax	2023/24 £	2024/25 £	Change £	Change %
General Precept	1,278.06	1,321.37
Adult Social Care Precept	171.62	200.61
Band D exc. WPCC	1,449.68	1,521.98	72.30	*5.0%
GLA Precept	434.14	471.40	37.26	8.6%