Local government: Calderdale Council suggests increasing council tax by almost 5 per cent

Tax payers in the borough will be faced with the hike if cabinet budget recommendations for the forthcoming financial year are approved next month.

Councils are being allowed to raise council tax by up to 2.99 per cent, and add a two per cent social care levy.

But Council Leader Tim Swift said he was unhappy with having to fund social care through council tax.

“The principle of transferring ever increasing proportions of the costs of social care onto council tax rather than funding them through other forms of taxation is one that personally I am deeply unhappy with and I don’t think is sustainable,” he said.

“The whole local government finance system is increasingly unstable and held together by year-on-year fixes.”

He said the council’s proposed budget was grounded in three main principles - investing in social care, maintaining existing spending levels on frontline services and delivering a “robust and balanced budget”, taking pressures into account.

He said the council is still being impacted by the pandemic as well as the cost of living crisis and what he called the “chaotic” Liz Truss Prime Ministership, which he said “created long term economic damage to the country”.

“Unprecedented” national political instability – with three Prime Ministers in a few months - following 12 years of austerity cuts to councils also played a part, he claimed.

The council will still need to make savings, said a report to councillors, and challenges they will face early in 2023-24 include a review of parking charges, a review of use and need of buildings, and a waste services delivery review.

Councillors heard additional funding from Government will see Calderdale get around £7.9 million in a social care grant and market sustainability and discharge funding, but the services grant allocation has fallen by £1.3 million.

Inflation is causing councils real problems but active management of the council’s own investments should see these bring in extra cash – around £3 million in 2023-24, they also heard.

Together, these funds fill the savings gap of around £10 million.

Budget proposals now go out to consultation with responses to come back to Cabinet on February 13 before full council approval on February 27.