Westminster considers 100pc council tax increase after funding cuts
Residents face steep bill rise after Government strips borough of subsidies
Westminster City Council has warned residents could face a council tax rise of more than 100% next April, after being granted powers to impose uncapped increases for the next two years in response to a £100 million cut to central government funding, as reported in the Daily Telegraph. The council said government's own funding assumptions imply a 100% increase is needed just to plug the gap, though it has warned even doubling council tax may not be enough, with bills potentially rising by as much as 200%. A public consultation is set to launch this summer, asking residents what savings measures the council should prioritise.
Cllr Paul Fisher, the council's lead on finance, said:
"Even doubling council tax wouldn't fully close a gap this size, which tells you everything about how badly this funding formula treats Westminster.
We run one of the leanest councils in the country, and we're still being asked to find £100m from somewhere.
I'd rather be straight with residents about that now than pretend otherwise and land them with the bill unannounced."
Despite the scale of the potential rise, council tax in Westminster remains notably low compared with the rest of the country. A Band D property currently pays £1,047.85 a year, and even with a 100% rise in the council's share alongside a 5% increase from the Greater London Authority, the total bill would reach around £1,610, still far below the national average of £2,392.
Council Leader Cllr Paul Swaddle criticised the government's funding review as "a transfer of wealth dressed up in technical language," pointing out that Westminster collects £ 2.5 billion in business rates annually without keeping any of it.
"We have around 200,000 residents and up to 800,000 visitors coming into Westminster on any given day, and we're still expected to fund all of that from a shrinking grant and a council tax base that was never designed to carry it alone," he said.
Westminster is one of five London boroughs, alongside Kensington and Chelsea, Wandsworth, Hammersmith and Fulham, and the City of London, granted powers to raise council tax above the usual 5% cap for the next two years, after government funding to Westminster was cut from £ 219 million to £ 119 million, contributing to a forecast £ 160 million shortfall by 2029.
Read Joe Wright's article in The Daily Telegraph in full here.
