Making Council Tax fairer....and saving you (a little) money

The Council Tax that we all have to pay has taken an increasingly large proportion of people's wage packets over the last twenty years. From 1997-98 through to 2010-11 it increased by 47% in "real terms", i.e. by 47% over and above what you would expect if it had risen by the rate of inflation (RPI) alone.

To address this, from 2013 to 2016 the Government offered money to local authorities to help them freeze their Council Tax and also introduced a "threshold" of 2.0%. Any authority wishing to increase their Council Tax above the 2.0% threshold would have to have a referendum in their local area, to see if residents supported any proposed increase. The effect of these measures is that nationally, over the last four years, Council Tax has fallen by 11% in "real terms".

Nevertheless, we all recognise that Council Tax is still high and that local authorities must set their Council Tax responsibly.

In Snodland, your local Conservative team has supported measures to keep down Council Tax as much as possible. This is why we supported Conservative-controlled Tonbridge & Malling Borough Council's "Fairer Charging" proposals.

In the past, Snodland residents (and all residents of "parished" areas of Tonbridge & Malling) have subsidised the Council Tax payments of residents in "non-parished" areas of the Borough. This is because in areas that do not have a parish, TMBC take responsibility for all of the services that a parish would normally provide. This meant that, in addition to paying some Council Tax to Snodland Town Council (our "parish"), Snodland residents were also paying money to TMBC to run the parish services in other areas that had no Parish or Town Council. Recognising that this was unfair, TMBC gave all parishes a grant to help them pay for some of their services. In Snodland, this amounted to about £64,000.

This year, TMBC took the difficult decision to change their system so that all residents will pay a reduced basic charge for "core services", i.e. services that everyone gets, such as waste collection, and then introducing a "Local Charge" for services that are specific to that Parish alone. In Snodland, this would just mean charging for TMBC's maintenance of some public open spaces. In return for this, TMBC's element of the Council Tax would be about £16 lower than it would have been otherwise, but the Town Council would also lose their grant money and have to replace it by having a small increase in their own Council Tax.

It's easier to show the effect of this by looking at a "Band D" Council Tax bill.

In 2016-17 your annual Council Tax went to pay for services at five public bodies:
Kent Police £152.15
Kent Fire & Rescue £72.00
Kent County Council £1133.55
TMBC £192.51
Snodland Town Council £75.07
TOTAL £1625.28

The amount charged by the Police Authority, Fire Authority and KCC are outside of the control of your five local Borough councillors. KCC's finances have been crippled by the need to pay for the spiralling costs of adult social care. This means that they have no flexibility and are highly likely to increase their Council Tax by the maximum 2.0%, plus a further 2.0% which the Government have allowed this year to help pay for adult social care (although this nowhere near covers the actual cost to KCC).

Therefore, the areas that we can affect are TMBC and Snodland Town Council, both of which are Conservative controlled.

TMBC charged £192.51 last year. If it had not been for the introduction of Fairer Charging, that would have increased to £197.51 this year (a maximum of £5 increase is allowed by the Government). Assuming that TMBC follows the recommendation in its report published this week, then their charge for 2017-18 will actually be £181.61.

Snodland Town Council had intended to freeze its charge this year, leaving it at £75.07. However, to make up for the loss of grant money, it needs to increase its charge by £5.89 to £80.96.

In addition, TMBC will now need to levy a Local Charge of £5.48 for the maintenance of public spaces.

In total, this means that the charge for 2017-18 instead of being £197.51 + £75.07 (£272.58) will be £181.61 + £80.96 + £5.48 (£268.05). This represents a REDUCTION of £4.53 for all of the services provided by TMBC and Snodland Town Council.

In the recent Snodland Town Council by-election we were criticised for removing the TMBC grant to Snodland Town Council because, according to Labour, it would "add around £5.50 Council Tax to Band D properties in Snodland". This have proven to be completely incorrect. The whole purpose of making the change was to save money for residents in parished areas.

We recognise that a saving of £4.53 in the context of increases from the Police Authority, Fire Authority and KCC only makes a small difference, but we wanted to do everything that we could to help you keep more money in your pocket.

We don't yet know the exact amount that KCC and the authorities are going to charge, but we do expect them to be higher, so the total amount for all Council Tax is likely to be more than the £1625.28 for this year.

This makes it even more important we do our bit to help out the residents of Snodland.

Cllr David Lettington