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Referendum dodgers: Councils hit families with 'cynical' tax raid to escape local elections
• Councils raise tax by 3.49 per cent to avoid referendum trigger at 3.5 per cent
By Steve Doughty
Last updated at 11:17 PM on 6th February 2012
Dozens of town halls are planning a ‘cynical’ rise in their council tax bills this year in defiance of the Government.
Many of the planned rises are being pitched at levels just below a new trigger for a local referendum.
Under rules brought in at the end of last year, any authority trying to push through a hike of more than 3.5 per cent must have it approved by voters.
Most households will have to find an extra £40 to £50 on top of the average £1,200 a year bill in England.
Communities Secretary Eric Pickles said: ‘We are seeing a number of councils acting as referendum dodgers who quite cynically are raising council tax by 3.49 per cent in a naked move to dodge the public vote.
‘These councils are treating the electorate with contempt. They should have the courage to put their hikes to the vote and justify the tax rises. Instead they are running for cover.
‘Councillors have a moral duty to sign up to keep down the cost of living. Anything less is a kick in the teeth to hard-working, decent taxpayers.’
Last year virtually every authority observed a freeze in council tax demanded by the Coalition government as it started its austerity drive. They have been asked to do the same again next year, and have once again been offered extra Treasury funds, this time of £650million.
Several councils look set to return to the same practices that saw the average council tax bill almost double in the preceding decade.
Among those planning 3.5 per cent increases are Green-led Brighton and Hove and Labour councils in Chesterfield, Darlington, Leicester, Middlesbrough, Preston, Redcar & Cleveland and Stockton-on-Tees. Stoke-on-Trent is proposing a 3.49 per cent rise. A number of Tory-led authorities are also planning increases close to the referendum threshold.
Surrey is aiming for 2.99 per cent while Cambridgeshire county council and the district councils of East Cambridgeshire and Peterborough are looking for 2.95 per cent.
So far 18 councils have said they want increases up to the referendum threshold. Some 181 have so far signed up to Mr Pickles’s pledge of a council tax freeze. The remaining councils – half of the national total – are yet to declare.
Councils must set their bills by the middle of next month in time to land on doormats at the beginning of April. Many are struggling following the council tax freeze last year and insist the £650million on offer is too little.
But Emma Boon of the TaxPayers’ Alliance said: ‘It is astonishing that some local authorities have the cheek not only to hike council tax, but to do it just below the threshold at which they will need to hold a referendum.
‘With the Government offering financial help to councils to freeze the rates this year there is no excuse for these town hall tyrants to put extra pressure on already struggling households.’
However, Sir Merrick Cockell, chairman of the Local Government Association, the umbrella body for councils, said: ‘Times are tough and councils across the country want to help families by keeping council tax down.
‘All local authorities froze council tax in this financial year and the vast majority plan to freeze it again next year.
‘The extra government support will help them do that, but this is a one-off grant that won’t be there in 2013 or beyond.’

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