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2.5% increase in Council Trax? - nick (3rd Feb 2012 - 16:03:16) Thought council tax had been frozen for this coming financial year, must have misread what was announced in the buget.. Since when can local autrhorities overide what Parliament has approved in the budget debate

Re: 2.5% increase in Council Trax? - Mike Grimes (5th Feb 2012 - 16:48:00) The council tax "Freeze" that you refer to is, I believe, voluntary and supported by grants to replace the income foregone. If I understand East Hampshire's stance, they are saying that there is no guarantee of such a grant in 2013 which would lead to an increase of around 5% (in 2013/14). In order to make that more palatible (is it an election year?) they are raising the tax by 2.5% this year. It seems that East Hants may be foregoing a grant this year to make next year's rise lower in annual percentage terms. Doesn't seem right to me.

Re: 2.5% increase in Council Tax? - Mike Grimes (7th Feb 2012 - 10:48:00) Digging a little deeper, it transpires that the Government are considering legislation that would require councils to hold a referrendum if they wished to increase council tax by more than 3.5%. Fearful that a public vote might fail to approve such an increase next year, I wonder if they are increasing it this year to avoid the need to ask those that have to pay it. Wouldn''t want them to cut management bonuses and inefficient administration costs to protect front line services now, would we?

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