Outrageous council tax rise proposed
Date published: 28 December 2012
Rochdale Borough Council is proposing to increase Council Tax by an outrageous 3.5% next year.
The steep rise will hit very hard given the latest official figures reveal average pay has been cut in real terms by more than 3.5% as salary increases have failed to keep pace with inflation.
In 2009, before Labour took control of the Council, Councillor Colin Lambert, commenting on the then Lib Dem council's proposed 3.7% council tax rise, said: "Their council tax rise of 3.7% is outrageous in the current economic climate." Despite the worsening economic climate, Councillor Lambert, now the leader of the council, appears to have changed his tune.
Moreover, despite the 3.5% being above the council tax referendum threshold of 2% - if a local authority seeks to raise the relevant amount of basic council tax by more than 2% then a council tax referendum is required and local people would have the right to vote whether to increase council tax through a binding referendum veto - the council believes that the increase of 3.5% will not trigger a referendum.
The council has not explained why it believes a referendum would not be triggered, despite 3.5% clearly being above the 2% threshold, however, in a reply to local businessman Paul Turner-Mitchell asking "should we have a referendum in Rochdale as Rochdale Council propose increasing Council Tax by 3.5% next year?", Brandon Lewis MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Local Government, says: "they will have to at that level, yes."
Comments
Fact: Despite repeated Tory references to "three generations of worklessness" (Iain Duncan Smith) and "four generations of families where no one has ever had a job" (Chris Grayling), this whole "culture of worklessness" and inter-generational fecklessness is a complete exaggeration based on little or no empirical evidence.
Consider the conclusion of a recent, in-depth report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF):
Since George Osborne made it clear in his Autumn Budget that we'd be facing cuts until 2018 and he's missed every economic deadline he's announced thus far people need to be aware that there's at least another 80% of cuts not even made yet people need to wake up and smell the coffee for what's hurtling down the track towards them a combination of Universal Credit, axed service provision, and social breakdown, possibly disorder according to the CEO of Liverpool Council - still Tory now?
Perhaps the food bank could be allowed to use the old Salvation Army hostel since it now has a demolition sign up outside it, and still rough sleepers with nowhere else to go kipping overnight in it's grounds, the skips behind Yorkshire Street are getting too well used by Rochdale's growing hungry and homeless at present. So maybe the Old Sally Army could double up as an emergency hostel and food bank - with the option of an emergency soup kitchen when the new DWP sanctions are enforced April?
Equally those few of us who have escaped 'Planet Rochdale' and lived in towns and cities where other councils provide a first rate level of public services with active councillors so unlike the majority of the 60 moribund not to say incompetent limpets clinging on to their expenses at all cost providing an exceptionally poor local democratic framework, can't understand why anything but sheep would pay over the odds for what was even before the cuts poor quality, third rate council services.
No local elections next year - a good time to extract money from local residents.
Finally, the fact that RMBC is having the 13th biggest cap per head of any council in the country and the second highest in terms of metropolitan boroughs of comparable size does not excuse the Labour Council, Rochdale Labour Party and Labour councillors giving in to Osborne/Cameron/Clegg's Westminster imposed cuts without so much as a bleat of opposition shows them for the spineless 'champagne socialists' they really are. There will be opposition but it will not be from these cowards.
Services have been cut and efficiency savings have been made but we already know people will vote no to paying more money! A referendum to hear no will just be another waste of taxpayers money.
People may be inclined to pay more if services remained secure but I have the feeling that even with a rise in Council Tax more cuts will follow.
Oh and RMBC legal advice has been poor at the best of times, irrespective of party or leader.
Excellent points AJRDLawrence. Basically they are expecting us to pay more for less services - the last time they messed with council tax the Thatcher Government was brought down by protests on the streets. Am I alone in getting a peculiar sense of deja vu over this?
I think that rather than people being 'inclined to pay more if services remain secure', as suggested above, that people will be inclined to tell the Council where to stick their Council Tax - it worked before circa 1990AD.
Streetshack mentions the foodbank.
Keep seeing a local family visiting in various permutations (to get around the 3 day restriction, I assume). They must have more tinned veg in the pantry than the local corner shop.
Moral to the tale: When people get something for nothing there is a high chance that selfishness and avarice make an appearance. Ask John Prescott.
If that's what supporters of a socialist paradise want let them pay extra tax. HMRC or local councils will gladly accept.
Quoting: "if a local authority seeks to raise the relevant amount of basic council tax by more than 2% then a council tax referendum is required".
I want a council tax referendum. What needs to be triggered to initiate a council tax referendum or does it automatically happen because the increase is greater than 2%?
I assume that its a democratic society in England and due process needs to be followed?
Well, someone has to pay for the errors and blunders this bunch of incompetent morons have been making since YOU voted them to represent you.
Did you think it came for free?
We can bleat all we want about cuts, they had to come because nobody can keep spending more than they have indefinitely. And stop the moaning about Rochdale getting a poor deal - we still have one of the highest government subsidies per capita, we kept putting council tax up in 2008 and 2010 when other councils froze theirs, yet we think we can increase it again and lose the grant that we would get to keep increases to zero. We have had a poor council for 20 years and this one isn't any better.
If a referendum is required by law for council tax increase of more than 2%, and the council is raising it by 3.5% and refusing to hold a referendum, the council leader should end up in court, simple as. And a rise of this magnitude is even more scandalous considering they've now given up emptying bins
Carl, I think you might find that more people are increasingly looking seriously at the hope of a "socialist paradise' as they become increasingly aware of what their present nightmare of a capitalist reality is.
Did you know that two of the most popular e|books downloaded on Kindle's politics section are "The Communist Manifesto" and "Das Kapital" - speaks volumes to me of where people's intellects for alternative systems are drawn, with not much demand for Mein Kampf.
As we can see folks those overpaid proffessionals at the Black Box 'Communications Team' have failed to even bother to let us proles know about this 3.5% increase on the Latest News section of our much loved RMBC official web page.
How is the suggested saving by reducing the number of councillors from 60 to 40 coming along?
To suggest there will not be a referendum is simply ridiculous, of course there will be. What planet are you on Lambert, do us all a favour and quit, you have done an atrocious job for the people of Rochdale.
Lambert you are a hypocrite, worse still you are also a useless leader, please for all our sakes don't cling on much longer.
I work for Rochdale Council, I've had no pay rise for three years to be followed by a one per cent rise for the next three years. It's the councillors sucking the money out of council tax, plus black box professionals creating jobs to get pay increases.
Let's have a referendum.
Dear all, contact your local councillor and let him know what you think. Also come next local elections vote.
Have Your Say
And remember, from next year even the very poorest families will have to pay Council Tax for the first time ever.
I think that Rochdale's Food Bank will need to expand massively.
I think a referendum should be held on whether or not Cllr Lambert should continue to hold office!
By Ishmael @ 28/12/2012 13:28:27