Council Tax increases: brutal reality of the hikes revealed as every Londoner facing a rise

Evening Standard

London’s 33 borough councils are starting to reveal how much their council tax bills will rise from April.Most are expected to agree a near five per cent rise in demands, according to draft budget planning documents.

Transcript

00:00Every Londoner is going to see an increase in council tax in April.

00:03We already know that Mayor Sadiq Khan will be adding £18.98 to his share of the annual bill

00:09for the average Van D household. This is to help him pay for things like TfL, the Met Police and

00:14London Fire Brigade. Now all 32 London boroughs are currently setting their budgets for the year.

00:20All, bar one, which we'll come to in a second, are expected to increase their share of the council

00:25tax by 5%. How much this will actually be depends very much on where you live in the city. And it

00:32really is a case of inner London versus outer London. While inner London boroughs have historically

00:37set lower council tax, places like Wandsworth and Westminster, for example, will continue to

00:43set the lowest council tax in the country, even if they add 5% to bills. People in average

00:48households there will still see bills of around £1,000 a year. This is compared to residents

00:54living in places like Croydon, Havering, Kingston, Richmond, who are already paying bills

01:01of over £2,000 a year and will continue to see them rise. On top of this, seven London boroughs

01:08have requested exceptional financial support from the government this year. One of those, Newham,

01:15asked for special permission to increase council tax by 10%. This is twice the amount allowed,

01:22usually without a referendum. This week, Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner said the borough

01:27could increase council tax for residents by 9%. For an average home, this will mean adding about

01:34£131 to their annual bill. Now, Newham says it needs this extra money because it is facing an

01:40over £150 million deficit caused almost entirely by its temporary accommodation bill. This is

01:48because there has been a huge rise in the number of families requiring support for homelessness

01:53from the council. At the same time, rents in London have skyrocketed and the council cannot

01:58afford to pay for the temporary accommodation that these people need. Along with Newham,

02:04Havering, Lambeth, Croydon, Barnet, Enfield and Haringey have also applied for exceptional

02:11financial support. While they have not asked for an increase in council tax beyond 5%,

02:17they are asking the government for permission to do things like sell off assets, to pay for

02:22day-to-day spending and for emergency loans to cover their cash flow crisis. These boroughs

02:28are also blaming the huge rise in the number of people seeking temporary accommodation and also

02:33the skyrocketing cost of providing social care for the problems in their budgets. It means that

02:39for many Londoners, despite seeing their council tax go up in April, they will not see services

02:45improve. In fact, for some of those living in the boroughs that are struggling the most,

02:49they will actually see a decrease in services. Places like Havering have already started doing

02:54things like dimming street lights and cancelling Christmas decorations, closing libraries to help

03:00them cover the deficit that they're continuing to face every year. Now, the government this year

03:06signed off a 5.7% increase in core spending for London boroughs, but London Council's,

03:13the umbrella group which represents every single borough, said this is still not enough.

03:17And this year, even with that extra money, collectively they will be facing a £500m shortfall.

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