Council tax increasing over 5%

dpwolves

Hi,

We've just had our council tax bill for 2025/26 and found that it is increasing by 5.2% overall, despite Wolverhampton council declaring 4.99%. They seem to have done this by increasing the City council part by 4.99%, but then 6.6% and 6.5% respectively for Fire & civil Defence and Police. Is this allowed, as it seems a sneaky way of still increasing the council tax payment above the threshold of 4.99%?

Organgrinder

9.5% where I live!  

Savvy_Sue

dpwolves said:

Hi,

We've just had our council tax bill for 2025/26 and found that it is increasing by 5.2% overall, despite Wolverhampton council declaring 4.99%. They seem to have done this by increasing the City council part by 4.99%, but then 6.6% and 6.5% respectively for Fire & civil Defence and Police. Is this allowed, as it seems a sneaky way of still increasing the council tax payment above the threshold of 4.99%?

I can't be sure of the legalities of it, but I'd be surprised if the paid staff let them get away with something which could be challenged. 

SouthCoastBoy

Council tax is way too expensive, it's like having a second mortgage, the compounding will make it a ridiculous charge in 10 to 20 years time

Murphybear

SouthCoastBoy said:

Council tax is way too expensive, it's like having a second mortgage, the compounding will make it a ridiculous charge in 10 to 20 years time

We live in the county which has the third highest council tax in the country.     Apparently the biggest single cost to councils is social care.  We have an above average number of older people so more who need social care.  

Savvy_Sue

Savvy_Sue said:

dpwolves said:

Hi,

We've just had our council tax bill for 2025/26 and found that it is increasing by 5.2% overall, despite Wolverhampton council declaring 4.99%. They seem to have done this by increasing the City council part by 4.99%, but then 6.6% and 6.5% respectively for Fire & civil Defence and Police. Is this allowed, as it seems a sneaky way of still increasing the council tax payment above the threshold of 4.99%?

I can't be sure of the legalities of it, but I'd be surprised if the paid staff let them get away with something which could be challenged. 

And just for completeness, our bill arrived this morning: 5% for council, 5% for fire and 5.9% for police. 

Senior officers will know what can and can't be done, and they'd all be in communication with each other, you wouldn't get a widespread illegal attempt to impose a larger-than-allowed increase. 

GunJack

Ours has gone up 7.2% for this year, on top of 11% last year and IIRC 5-6% the year before....getting silly now

Baldytyke88

dpwolves said:

We've just had our council tax bill for 2025/26 and found that it is increasing by 5.2% overall, despite Wolverhampton council declaring 4.99%. They seem to have done this by increasing the City council part by 4.99%, but then 6.6% and 6.5% respectively for Fire & civil Defence and Police. Is this allowed, as it seems a sneaky way of still increasing the council tax payment above the threshold of 4.99%?

What makes you think that the council will decide how much the fire and police bill increases by?

Indout96

Ours is going up 9.9%, it is now our single larges monthly bill (they did ask to put it up 15% but were turned down)

MSE_Kit

Hi everyone, thanks for the discussion. We've just published an MSE News story about the council tax rises, which you can read here:

'Council tax to rise for millions in April with most facing at least 5% hikes - here's what you need to know'

MSE Kit

Baldytyke88

MSE_Kit said:

Hi everyone, thanks for the discussion. We've just published an MSE News story about the council tax rises, which you can read here:

At least the majority of council tax increases are at a lower rate than the increases in wages.