"Coventry Council Tax bills set for inflation-busting rise – to pay for fewer services"

[dutchman]

Coventry council taxpayers are set to be hit with the largest Council Tax rise for years to pay for dwindling services – at an inflation-busting 3.9 per cent.

For years, Council Tax has been restricted by the government at a maximum two per cent in Coventry – and government incentives have been taken to freeze bills in some years.

But with greater government freedoms, the council’s Labour leaders have today announced their intention to press ahead with the large hike.

They say it is necessary to “protect the vulnerable” from cuts in council services including adult social care, which they blame on unprecedented government funding cuts since 2010.

The plan will be debated by councillors at a budget setting meeting on Feburary 23, where the Labour majority of councillors will be expected to force the measure through, in time for the new financial year in April.

Councillor Damian Gannon, finance cabinet member, said: He said: “For a number of years we have kept Council Tax as low as we can manage while focusing on protecting the frontline services that we know people really value.

“The government have refused to provide additional grants to fund the rising cost of social care, instead they want councils to levy an extra tax on residents.

“As a result, the council has no choice but to accept the social care precept due to the pressures that the service in Coventry is facing.

“This will cost residents 40p more per week than the 1.9 per cent rise the council was originally anticipating making.

“Half of the rise in this year’s Council Tax – that’s 40p a week – will be used to partially offset these costs, but it simply won’t be enough in the future.

“We know how important our frontline services are to Coventry residents but over the coming year we will need to work with people across the city to find new answers to the challenges we face, because the figures simply don’t add up and it’s clear the government will continue to cut our funding.”

A council statement added that “government funding for the council has been slashed by 45 per cent since 2010, reducing the Council’s grant for key services such as social care, refuse collections and highways maintenance to £122million from last year’s grant of £137million.

“Now councillors at a budget setting meeting later this month will hear that a Council Tax increase for most Coventry residents of around 80p a week is needed to help pay for the increasing cost of adult social care.”

[rebbonk]

May the shower of excrement that currently reside in Earl Street hang their collective heads in shame. Come the elections (hopefully) they will be consigned to the garbage bins, where they belong.

[dutchman]

Council tax rise of 3.9 per cent agreed - putting £60 on average bill

Council tax in Coventry will increase by 3.9 per cent from April after councillors agreed to a rise equal to about £60 for the average Band D home.

Anti-cuts protesters gathered outside the Council House ahead of the decision as they urged Coventry City Council to use £84.4million of reserves to postpone savings while central government was lobbied for increased local authority funding.

But the calls fell on deaf ears as the rise, which is the maximum allowed without triggering a referendum, was rubber-stamped. It comes as the council contends with a drop of £15.7m, or 11.4 per cent, in central government funding from 2015/16.

Coun Damian Gannon, the ruling Labour group’s cabinet member for finance, said the council had essentially been forced to ‘remortgage’ some of its £371.9m of debts as the council struggles to find areas where it can cut.

He said: “When there isn’t anything more households can do they have to approach the mortgage company. Today the council is essentially approaching the mortgage company to refinance its debt.

“In the long term, this will cost the taxpayer more money, but looking at the long-term picture, we believe the proposal can be justified.”

So the average bill will rise by just over a pound a week while the bill for the very poorest will increase by four times that amount!

[rebbonk]

This council are so up their own little ivory tower.

[Melisandre]

I can see we will have a City of slums

[dutchman]

Council tax bills set to rise as part of budget proposals



Coventry residents face another council tax hike which will leave some more than £100 out of pocket next year - but they will receive fewer services as the council looks to cut a further £36million from its budget.

The council is set to launch a public consultation into a proposed four per cent increase in it’s chunk of the overall council tax bill which would come into force across the city from April next year if signed off.

The rise is the maximum allowed without triggering a referendum and would raise an extra £3.5m. The plans follow on from a 3.9 per cent rise last year.

s well as the tax increase, there will be major cuts to council services to follow resulting in hundreds of job losses, changes to bin collections, potential increased car parking charges and possible future reductions in council tax support for the city’s poorest.

[dutchman]

Coventry council admits it can no longer protect most vulnerable



Coventry council’s finance chief has admitted the council can no longer protect the most vulnerable in the city as it continues to make savage cuts.

The city council will have shaved £650million from its spending in 2020 compared to 2010 as £120m of central government funding is pulled as a result of national austerity measures.

Now the council is faced with having to cut the Council Tax Support Scheme, which subsidises council tax for the city’s lowest earners, again. The move comes as the council also plans to hike their portion of the council tax bill by four per cent and emerged as the council releases its draft budget proposals which forecast financial changes between now and 2020.

These latest cuts follow the news that hundreds of children with physical disabilities and learning difficulties face cuts to school transport, while library provision is also set to be massively cut.

The financial challenges led Coun John Mutton, the council’s cabinet member for finance, to admit: “We’re not able to protect the most vulnerable, but our intention is to try to.”

The council tax support scheme helps the city’s lowest earners make ends meet by subsidising their annual bills.

Earlier this year it suffered a £3m cut to the £27.6m cost resulting in a 15 per cent cut in support for more than 33,500 households in the city that received support.

But a further £2m of cuts to the support is forecast in 2018 according to the council’s pre-budget report.

Asked how this could marry up with the Labour council’s pledge to support the city’s most vulnerable, Coun Mutton said: “We’re not able to protect the most vulnerable but our intention is to try to.

“When we have lost £95m from the government, and that will increase to £120m by 2020, it is impossible to deliver all the services we would want to.

“If austerity continues, we will only be able to deliver statuary services by 2020.”

Asked if he thought lives could be put at risk by some of the cuts, he said: “I don’t think it’s that severe. Statuary services such as adult social care and children’s services will continue to be funded. But that is sometimes at the expense of other services that are desirable.”

[rebbonk]

Bunch of rank outside amateurs!

There is so much waste, duplication and general inefficiency within the council that if it was eradicated there would be no need to cut services. This is nothing more than a cheap political act.

[Melisandre]

The financial challenges led Coun John Mutton, the council’s cabinet member for finance, to admit: “We’re not able to protect the most vulnerable, but our intention is to try to.”

The council tax support scheme helps the city’s lowest earners make ends meet by subsidising their annual bills.

So where is all this money they are saving going.
Years ago before they split the rent which was £5.00 including rates and water rates being (council Tax) now each year we would get a rate rebate the end of the year which was more than I was living off with 2 children a week some years it was rebate of £40 or £60 other years where did all that money go.
I wonder which country method s are they copying now.

[dutchman]

Budget 2017: Council tax set to rise and weekly bin collections axed in new budget proposals



Council tax and car parking charges are set to rise, and a weekly bin collection axed, under budget proposals put forward by Coventry City Council.

From April, householders face paying around £50 a year more for their council tax, but will only have their green-lidded bins emptied every fortnight, if the plans are approved at a full council meeting on February 21.

However previously under-threat services like the Job Shop and Shopmobility could be saved, and libraries have been given a stay of execution.

Cllr John Mutton, cabinet member for Strategic Finance and Resources, said that once again local councils were being forced to absorb government cuts.

He said: “We have to balance the budget and we have had to make some very difficult decisions.

“Even so, we have listened to the views of local people, looked again at our budgets and been able to avoid making further cuts in some services such as Council Tax Support.”

He added: “These are challenging times for the council and it is frustrating to have to manage local services under government imposed constraints but I’m confident that we have found a way forward that provides effective services with less funding.

“We’re putting robust financial plans in place. More importantly rather than set out savings for just one year ahead, which we have done in the past, we have been able to make more long term plans by setting out a balanced budget for the next three years.”

The council have announced that it wants to raise its share of council tax to 4.9 per cent

Roughly 90 per cent of the annual council tax bill is set and collected by Coventry City Council.

If approved during the full council meeting, most households will have to pay about £1 per week extra on top of their tax bill from April.

The government has changed the rules to allow councils to increase their tax by an extra three per cent to pay for Adult Social Care.

The council say the largest part of the council tax rise will be used to help pay for the increasing number of service users and rising costs in this area.

However the city’s lowest earners will not be affected by the hike as plans to change the Council Tax Support scheme will not longer be pursued.

Plans to cut the frequency of bin collections are still included in the final budget that will be presented to council.

In a bid to save £1m a year, green household waste bins will only be collected every other week.

If approved, residents will be able to put food waste in their garden waste bins on weeks when their household waste bin is not collected.

The blue-lidded bin would carry on being collected as it currently is.

Cllr Mutton told that Telegraph that if large families could be provided with a second green-lidded bin if they struggle to get two weeks’ worth of waste into one.