Councils planning tax rises to cover mushrooming cost of social care

Residents are facing council tax rises in 2017

Nine in 10 people in England are facing inflation-busting council tax rises next year as authorities struggle to cover the cost of caring for the vulnerable, according to a new survey.

The research found 95 per cent of the councils questioned intended to increase bills for 2017/18 by between 3.9 per cent and 3.99 per cent – the maximum allowed without a local referendum.

Local authorities warned that despite the rises, they will still not have enough money to cover the burgeoning cost of social care while absorbing crippling cuts from central government.

The study from the Local Government Chronicle surveyed a quarter of the 152 “top-tier councils” to uncover the pending rises.

Claire Kober, chair of the Local Government Association’s resource board, said: “After years of striving to keep council tax as low as possible or frozen, many town halls have found themselves having to ask residents to pay more council tax over the next few years, particularly to try and offset some of the spiralling costs of social care.

“Social care faces a funding gap of at least £2.6bn by 2020, even if every council makes full use of their current flexibility to increase council tax until the end of the decade.

Services supporting the elderly and disabled are “breaking point”, Ms Kober added. “It cannot be left to council taxpayers alone to try and fix them. Only genuinely new additional government funding for social care will give councils any chance of protecting the services caring for our elderly and disabled.”

The expected increases follow an average 3.1 per cent rise this year – the largest since 2008/09 – and include a 2 per cent “precept” introduced by former chancellor George Osborne last year to pay for care for elderly and disabled people.

A 4 per cent hike would increase average tax on a band D property by £61 to £1,591, though actual rises are likely to be somewhat smaller as a portion of the bill is taken up by other authorities with lower maximum-increase levels.

A Department for Communities and Local Government spokesman said: “Councils will have nearly £200bn to spend on services over the course of this Parliament, including a social care package worth £3.5bn – compared to the £2.9bn they said they needed.

“The truth is council tax has fallen by 9 per cent in real terms since 2010/11, and is expected to be lower in real terms in 2019/20 than it was in 2010/11. Residents will still be able to veto excessively high rises via a local referendum.”