By Joe Locker, Local Democracy Reporter
Nottingham City Council has broken down how much tax is expected to go up by for different households if new budget plans are approved.
A fresh round of savings totalling £29m have been proposed by the Labour-run council as it looks to plug a £32m hole in its budget for the 2023-2024 financial year.
The measures include hiking council tax by the highest permitted percentage of just below five per cent.
This would include a 2.99 per cent rise for basic council tax and a further 1.99 per cent for the adult social care precept.
Through the tax rise it is anticipated the council will raise an extra £8.2m in 2023-2024.
The authority’s draft budget proposals, which will be discussed at an Executive Board meeting on December 20, show how much different households will pay if they are approved.
Tax is broken up into ‘bands’ between A and H.
Smaller houses of lesser value are typically in bands A and B and so have smaller bills, average-sized homes are typically in the middle in band D, and larger properties with higher valuations are assigned to bands F, G and H.
The potential council tax rises per household by ‘band’ are shown below, excluding the precepts for the Police Commissioner and the Fire and Rescue Authority, which are decided separately.
(In brackets are the percentage of homes in the city belonging to each band).
Band A (62.5 per cent):
Council tax 2022/23: £1,303.55
Council tax 2023/24: £1,368.59
Increase: £65.04
Increase per week: £1.25
Band B (17.5 per cent):
Council tax 2022/23: £1,520.80
Council tax 2023/24: £1,596.69
Increase: £75.89
Increase per week: £1.46
Band C (11.6 per cent):
Council tax 2022/23: £1,738.06
Council tax 2023/24: £1,824.79
Increase: £86.73
Increase per week: £1.66
Band D (5.2 per cent):
Council tax 2022/23: £1,955.32
Council tax 2023/24: £2,052.89
Increase: £97.57
Increase per week: £1.87
Band E (1.8 per cent):
Council tax 2022/23: £2,389.84
Council tax 2023/24: £2,509.09
Increase: £119.25
Increase per week: £2.29
Band F (0.8 per cent):
Council tax 2022/23: £2,824.35
Council tax 2023/24: £2,965.29
Increase: £140.94
Increase per week: £2.70
Band G (0.5 per cent):
Council tax 2022/23: £3,258.87
Council tax 2023/24: £3,421.48
Increase: £162.61
Increase per week: £3.12
Band H (0.1 per cent):
Council tax 2022/23: £3,910.64
Council tax 2023/24: £4,105.78
Increase: £195.14
Increase per week: £3.74
Council tax hikes have been the cause of much controversy.
Government regimes have in the last decade put the onus on local authorities to raise money for services through council tax, rather than grants, which have been declining in value.
Currently, those living in a Band D property in Nottingham are paying the second-highest tax rates in the country out of 362 authorities, just behind Rutland, when including the Police Commissioner and Fire Authority precepts.
With the precepts added the bill is £2,294.
Cllr Andrew Rule (Con) said: “Once again Nottingham has the record of one of the highest tax rates in the country, which I think residents will be delighted about.”
However, in Nottingham, most households are in either tax band A or B (roughly 80 per cent), which pay less than Band D households.
The Labour administration therefore says a smaller proportion of taxpayers pay the Band D rate.
The average bill in Nottingham is, consequently, lower than the national average and sits at the 45th lowest in the country, according to the council.
But tax yield is, as a result, negatively impacted.
Portfolio holder for finance, Cllr Adele Williams (Lab), says: “80 per cent of houses are in Band A to B and in terms of the tax base per head of population, we are right at the extreme end, the wrong end, of that.
“Rishi Sunak boasted about undoing the work that Labour had done in tilting the funding formulas to support cities like Nottingham, where there is greater need, really compensating for what is really an unfair system of council tax.
“Council tax is no way to fund local services, no way to fund adult social care, it is really unfair.”
