Council tax consultation being launched

Telford & Wrekin council’s Labour-run cabinet is asking the public to respond to a consultation on budget proposals to raise its tax by £1.13 per week for the Band B average property in the borough.

Residents in Band A will pay less, but those in higher bands pay more.

At its cabinet meeting on Monday, the local Labour leadership agreed to consult on a 4.9 per cent increase in the tax – consisting of a 2.9 per cent rise for the general fund and two per cent for social care.

The proposal will be consulted on over the next month, before the final go ahead is given by the full council on February 23. It will be added to the demands of the police, fire service and town and parish councils to come to the final figure.

Councillor Carolyn Healy said the budget, which will see millions of pounds more used to meet rising demands in social care marked a bit of a light at “what has been a very dark tunnel” over the last 14 years.

She and other cabinet members referred to the council having to make £181 million in cuts over the last 14 years of Conservative government.

While Councillor Healy said the cuts made totalled more than the entire 2024-25 revenue budget of £157million, Conservative opposition leader Councillor Tim Nelson pointed out that it had been repeated too often for his liking.

Councillor Nelson said he had counted the same phrase eight times in the council budget papers.

He said it is a “figure that is dear to this council’s heart.

“The reason why I am familiar with that figure is because it appears eight times in the report – it only needs to appear once. You don’t need to read something eight times.”

Councillor Nelson and Lib Dem group leader Bill Tomlinson said that the council was going to set a council tax rise greater than the rate of inflation.

Councillor Tomlinson said the council was doing this at the same time as residents were suffering a cost-of-living crisis.

He said it would be 2028 before the outcome of a review of social care would be known.

He said: “We have been discussing it since at least 2010 but still it will be a welcome relief when we get some certainty.”

Labour councillors said they were ‘proud’ to be able to set a ‘balanced budget’ for the fourteenth year in a row despite cutbacks in grants from national Government.

And they welcomed an increase in funding from the new Labour government in Downing Street. Councillors heard that this was in the region of £7 million.

However the ever rising costs of social care for adults and children is proving to be as big an issue in Telford as it is in other councils.

There is no sign yet of a solution to how social care will be funded in the longer term. A national review of that is not expected for another three years.

Councillor Richard Overton said: “It’s welcome news that the new Labour government is looking at the best way to deal with this crisis in the national care service but unfortunately a review of this scale takes time and we must do all that we can now to ensure that our residents are supported when they reach this time in their lives.”

Councillor Overton said he was proud that the council was investing millions more into “looking after our most vulnerable” while at the same time having the “lowest council tax in the Midlands.”

He and other councillors compared the situation in Telford to down the M54 in Shropshire where the Conservative run council has introduced charges for green waste collection.

But Councillor Healy warned against complacency when she said the council is still planning to make additional cuts of £50 million in the next few years.

“We hope that we don’t need to go that far and that we have a better outlook but we are being careful and we are planning for that.”

She added that the council had been presented with a ‘really positive report’ and was using its resources ‘wisely’ for schools, roads, open spaces, supporting local businesses, and to protect the most vulnerable.

Council leader Councillor Lee Carter attacked opposition parties for dubbing the council as “taxing and wrecking” and urged them to be positive.

He welcome an increase in Government support as a “good first step” which enabled the council to be “very, very positive”.

He also urged everyone to have their say on the budget and to put forward ideas, vowing to adopt good ones.

The council says its proposals include £54m for Growth Fund to bring jobs to the borough, £30m for transport and highways schemes and over £26m will go into Towns Fund projects to revamp local centres.

More than £45m will go into expanding and improving schools and £1.7m will help protect and enhance local green spaces. Meanwhile, an additional £7.7m will take total investment into adult social care to £76m as the Council works to protect the most vulnerable.