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Wellingborough Council agree council tax rise
Published Friday 5th March 10
On Tuesday’s council meeting, borough councillors agreed a rise in council tax of 2.9 per cent for the year 2010/11. Even with the increase, residents will still have the lowest council tax in the county.
Most residents in the borough (84%) live in band A-D houses, meaning that in real terms nearly nine out of ten households will have a council tax increase of no more than £4 a year - equivalent to 8p a week.
The council has conducted an extensive Zero Based Budget (ZBB) exercise over the past year, meaning each service in turn has been asked to agree savings with the least impact on services. Through this process £1.4million of savings have been identified, but there is still much more to do as the council needs to save more than £3million over the next few years. Wellingborough Council is unusual in that, through sound and prudent financial management in the past, it has had enough reserves to draw on when times are tough. But obviously this isn't sustainable, as the Leader, Councillor John Bailey, addressed in his speech to the council:
"Although great strides have been made through ZBB to make savings of £1.5million, this budget still requires the use of £2.4million of revenue reserves to balance the books in 2010/11. About half of this can be laid at the door of the recession. It is clear we still have some way to go before we can present a future budget that calls on no contribution from revenue reserves.
"Last year we imposed no increase in council tax, and I would dearly have liked to have repeated that this year, but we really do now need every penny we get. An increase of 2.9% on council tax will bring in about £100,000."
Council tax only makes up 26p in every £1 of the council's income. The rest comes from government grants (57%) and net income, from items such as rent and investments (17%). Council tax is split three ways - for every £1 households pay, only 11p goes to the borough council to pay for services such as refuse collections, street cleaning, parks and cemeteries, leisure facilities, housing assistance, planning services and much more. Northamptonshire County Council receives 75p in every £1 of council tax, with the Northamptonshire Police getting the remaining 14p.