Shropshire Star

Shropshire Council tax in line to increase by 3.99%

Council tax in the Shropshire Council area is set for a 3.99 per cent rise if councillors agree the move next week.

Published

If the proposal is approved at the full meeting of Shropshire Council on Thursday, it means Band D property owners will be paying £1,259.51 for their 2017/18 bill.

In total the precept for the whole of the council area will raise £134,220,817.

A report to council from the authority's chief finance officer, James Walton, states: "Council is expected to agree a net budget of £206.073 million. This would result in an average council tax rise for its own purposes, for 2017/18, of 3.99 per cent."

The proposal means that the prices for properties will be £839.68 for Band A, £979.62 for Band B, £1,119.57 for Band C, £1,259.51 for Band D, £1,539.40 for Band E, £1,819.29 for Band F, £2,099.19 for Band G, and £2,519.02 for Band H. The 3.99 per cent rise is made up of 1.99 per cent allowed each year – the highest figure without calling a referendum – and two per cent permitted solely to be spent on adult social care.

Council Leader Malcolm Pate has also again rejected calls for a referendum which would allow the authority to propose an even greater increase.

In a letter to the authority, Councillor Duncan Kerr has asked if the council will consider a referendum, as was being considered by Surrey Council before it agreed to call it off earlier this month amid accusations of a "sweetheart deal" on funding from Westminster – something firmly denied by both government and council officials.

He said: "The Big Conversation showed that 47 per cent of residents would rather pay more tax than have services cut, and with ministers now supporting Surrey's actions we have a once in a four year opportunity to put the issue to the public.

"And if they turn it down then, as Surrey recognises, it will strengthen our hand with a government whose latest attempt at a solution simply made the problem worse. Will he let residents decide the issue or condemn them to the collapse of local government in Shropshire when the capital receipts on which we are surviving now run dry in three year's time?"

Councillor Pate said it would not be fair for the cost of providing adult social care to fall on Shropshire's council tax payers, when it would cost more than other areas of the country due to the elderly population.

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