Gedling deputy leader asks residents to ‘dip their hands in their pockets’ with tax rise to help protect vital council services

Gedling Borough Council says it is asking residents to “dip their hands in their pockets” with a tax rise following years of real-term budget cuts.

The Labour-led authority’s cabinet met today (February 16) to discuss its 2023/24 budget ahead of the wider full council budget meeting next month.

Within the discussions was a tax rise working out at £5.31 more for Band D homes, taking the total paid by these properties up to £183.38 for the year.

For Band A homes, it works out at £3.54 more from April or £122.25 being paid directly to the authority across the year.

Band B bills would also rise by £4.13 to £142.63, while Band C bills paid to fund the authority would increase by £4.72 to £163.00.

It follows Government figures that showed the council was the fifth-worst affected for real terms cuts to its core spending power since the 2015/16 financial year.

Whitehall data published in December showed the borough council will have eight per cent less money to spend on services next year compared with eight years ago.

In financial terms, this is a reduction in real-terms spending from £12.7m in 2015/16 to £11.6m from April 2023 onwards.

And Councillor Michael Payne (Lab), the authority’s deputy leader, said in Thursday’s meeting he thinks this could be worse without the proposed tax rise.

He said: “This has undoubtedly been the worst and most difficult year to put together a budget that maintains the vital public services but also keeps the council’s finances in a sound position.

“It’s been like knitting fog because we have a formula constructed by central government that results in Gedling being one of only ten councils that has lost money over the last 13 years.

“It results in this council having to ask, yet again, for residents to dip their hands in their pockets to make sure we can protect services like the collection of bins, leisure centres, parks and green spaces.

“Overall, our rate of council tax in Gedling remains the third-lowest in Nottinghamshire.

“If we weren’t increasing council tax this year, I’d put us being in the top three worst affected councils in this country [for long-term cuts to spending power].”

The cabinet backed the wider budget, which also includes the tax proposals.

This will now be presented to the full council meeting on March 2, when politicians from all political parties will meet to debate the proposals.

If approved, the increase would join separate tax rises from the police, the fire service and Nottinghamshire County Council.

Caroline Henry (Con), the police and crime commissioner, is raising bills by £14.94 on Band D homes.

For Band A, this rise is £9.96, rising to £11.62 for Band B and £13.28 for Band C.

The Nottinghamshire Fire Authority plans to increase bills for all homes by £5 regardless of banding.

And the Conservative-led county council is enforcing a 4.84 per cent rise, working out at £53.05 more for Band A, £61.88 for Band B, £70.73 for Band C and £79.57 for Band D.

When factoring in the borough council, emergency service and county council precepts, the total bills for Band A-D Gedling homes will be:

• Band A: £1,511.26 (total increase of £71.55)
• Band B: £1,763.40 (total increase of £82.63)
• Band C: £2,014.59 (total increase of £93.73)
• Band D: £2,265.80 (total increase of £104.82)

It comes as the borough council confirmed its tax plans will help to combat significant inflationary pressures.

This includes finding more than £1.2m to fund extra wages after national pay awards were agreed upon to support staff during the cost of living crisis.

A further £700,000 also needs to be found due to soaring utility costs fuelled by the ongoing energy crisis, Thursday’s meeting heard.