Ministers stand firm on tax bands
26/03/2024 MPs told there are ‘no plans’ to revalue council tax bands due to the cost and disproportionate impact on lower-income households and pensioners. |
Scottish councils in tax U-turn
25/03/2024 Argyll and Bute and Inverclyde councils had both voted to raise tax in defiance of the Scottish Government's efforts to secure a nationwide freeze. |
Council tax rises leading to ‘levelling down’
22/03/2024 Households in the Northeast are set to pay £420 more for an average band D property in council tax than those in Greater London. |
Welsh council tax rises finalised
13/03/2024 The average council tax rise for Welsh local authorities will be just over 8% next year. |
Limited exemptions for empty homes powers
11/03/2024 Councils will face only a limited number of exemptions from new powers allowing them to levy higher taxes on empty homes, ministers have confirmed. |
Woking BC approves 10% council tax hike
06/03/2024 Woking BC councillors have approved a nearly 10% council tax hike authorised by the Government after the council's issuing of a Section 114 notice. |
Council funding crisis ‘existential’
01/03/2024 Local government’s funding crisis threatens to derail ambitions to level up the north of England, it has been claimed. |
Scottish Budget 'not good' for communities
28/02/2024 Next year’s Scottish Budget is ‘not good’ for communities, council leaders have said. |
Council rejects tax freeze offer
23/02/2024 Argyll and Bute Council has become the first to reject the Scottish Government’s council tax freeze. |
Brum set to sell off £750m of assets
20/02/2024 Cash-strapped Birmingham City Council is set to sell off £750m of assets and cut spending on services by £300m in an effort to balance the books. |
Almost all areas set for maximum council tax rise
20/02/2024 Virtually every local authority with responsibility for social care in England plans on raising its council tax by the maximum 4.99% this April, according to new analysis. |
Council tax total set to exceed £57bn
19/02/2024 The total amount raised from council tax is now expected to exceed £57.4bn by 2028, more than double the 2009 figure of £25.3bn, new analysis reveals. |
Norfolk council to double council tax on second homes
12/02/2024 Second-home owners in north Norfolk will see their council tax double from next year. |
Northern households pay £250 more council tax
12/02/2024 Households in the North are paying on average £250 a year more than they should for council tax due to ' outdated council tax bands’, campaigners say. |
Wales could drive agenda on council tax, report argues
12/02/2024 Wales could have a chance to deal with unfairness in the council tax system and drive the agenda for other nations and regions to follow, says think-tank. |
Thurrock braced for 8% council tax hike
08/02/2024 Thurrock residents could soon be hit with an 8% increase in council tax as the local authority attempts to close its budget gap. |
Pembrokeshire council proposes record 21% council tax hike
08/02/2024 Pembrokeshire County Council has proposed the highest ever percentage increase in council tax in Wales. |
Brum granted permission to raise council tax by 10%
07/02/2024 Levelling up secretary Michael Gove has approved Birmingham City Council’s request to increase council tax by up to 10% without a local referendum. |
Gove sheds light on productivity plans
05/02/2024 Michael Gove has released further details of the Government's productivity plans, including a clampdown on consultants and diversity schemes. |
Council financial crisis ‘out of control’
31/01/2024 MPs have issued a stark warning on the ‘very real’ prospect of more councils in England ‘effectively going bust’ if the Government does not address a £4bn funding gap. |
Council leaders demand right to set tax levels
26/01/2024 Local authority leaders in Scotland have renewed their fight to set their own council taxes – despite the pledge of a freeze by first minister Humza Yousaf. |
Call for council tax overhaul
26/01/2024 Work should begin now on the ‘long-overdue’ revaluation of all domestic properties in England to bolster local government finance, a think-tank has argued. |
Argyll and Bute considers 10% council tax hike
25/01/2024 Argyll and Bute Council are considering a council tax rise of 10% in order to tackle ‘enormous budget challenges’. |
Council referrals to bailiffs up 20%
24/01/2024 Referrals to bailiffs in England and Wales to recover council debts have risen by nearly 20%, a BBC investigation has found. |
Conservative MPs call for emergency funding for councils
22/01/2024 MPs representing county areas have called on the Government to provide emergency funding to cash-strapped councils to prevent further cuts to local services. |
Oxfordshire CC budget proposals ‘£900,000 short’
19/01/2024 Oxfordshire County Council has published proposals to save over £9.8m but is still £900,000 short of what is required for a balanced budget. |
Thurrock avoids 10% council tax hike
12/01/2024 Cash-strapped Thurrock Council has pledged residents will not face a 10% council tax rise – but still needs to confirm how much extra they must pay. |
Somerset in capitalisation request amid ‘financial emergency’
10/01/2024 Somerset Council is to seek a capitalisation direction and permission to raise council tax by up to 10% as it attempts to stave off a section 114 notice. |
Birmingham faces 10% council tax hike
10/01/2024 Cash-strapped Birmingham City Council could raise council tax by 10% if the Government gives its finance plan the go-ahead. |
Somerset Council warns of ‘heart-breaking’ cuts
08/01/2024 Public toilets, theatres, and leisure services in Somerset are set to be hit by cuts as the unitary authority attempts to bridge a £100m budget gap. |
Welsh minister backs tax reforms
03/01/2024 One of the candidates to become first minister of Wales has backed reform of council tax. |
Council tax freeze to cost £156m
02/01/2024 Scottish councils face a real terms cut of up to £156m next year as a result of the council tax freeze, new research has found. |
Scottish councils get £14bn boost
19/12/2023 Local government in Scotland is set to benefit from a £14bn boost but council tax will be frozen despite criticisms of the plan by local authority leaders. |
Tax referendum cap lifted for three councils
19/12/2023 A number of councils are set to raise council tax by up to 10% next year without holding referendums. |
Council tax freeze costs Scottish Government £300m
15/12/2023 Fully funding local authorities for Scotland’s council tax freeze contributes significantly to the £1.5bn shortfall facing Holyrood, experts have warned. |
Brum requests permission to increase council tax over 5%
13/12/2023 Birmingham City Council is set to apply for permission to increase council tax by more than 5% to help address a £300m budget gap. |
Councillors recommend 300% empty properties’ council tax
08/12/2023 Owners of long-term empty properties in Lewes are set to be hit by council tax premiums of up to 300% from April 2024. |
Gove announces funding settlement
05/12/2023 Michael Gove has announced the local government finance policy statement, ensuring councils will receive a 3% minimum funding increase before council tax. |
Bath doubles council tax on second homes
05/12/2023 Council tax on second homes in Bath is set to double as the local authority seeks to tackle the local housing shortage. |
Poorer households should not be chased for council tax debt, MPs say
01/12/2023 The Government should ensure local authorities are not ‘aggressively’ chasing council tax debt from those who can least afford it, MPs have said. |
Wales consults on council tax reform
14/11/2023 The Welsh Government has launched a consultation on redesigning the country's council tax system. |
Council looks to address £100m ‘black hole’
01/11/2023 Somerset Council is considering measures, including reducing staffing and cutting services to statutory levels, to cover a £100m funding gap. |
Welsh councils face £750m shortfall
25/10/2023 Local government finances in Wales are on an ‘unsustainable path’, according to a report from Cardiff University’s Wales Governance Centre. |
DCN in cuts warning
24/10/2023 Cultural services, community support and parks and green spaces are all at risk of cuts without a boost to the local government finance settlement, respondents to a District Councils’ Network (DCN) survey have warned. |
‘No agreement’ with Scottish councils to freeze council tax
18/10/2023 The decision to freeze council tax across Scotland was made ‘completely without reference to local government’, according to council bosses. |
Liverpool to write off £25m council tax debt
11/10/2023 Millions of pounds worth of unpaid council tax is set to be written off by Liverpool City Council as ‘irrecoverable’. |
Rethinking council tax in Scotland
22/09/2023 Alison Payne, research director of Reform Scotland, argues that it is past time for a major rethink of council tax in Scotland. |
Calls to scrap council tax hike as consultation closes
20/09/2023 Councils should have complete control over their local tax, thinktank Reform Scotland has said in response to plans to increase council tax across Scotland. |
Council tax reforms divide sector
07/09/2023 Scottish local authorities have been left deeply divided by proposals to hike council tax on higher bands. |
Council tax leading to arbitrary tax bills
25/08/2023 Council tax is ‘highly regressive’ and leads to increasingly arbitrary tax bills, financial experts say. |
Tories call for tax cuts to boost housing
23/08/2023 A group of Conservative MPs has called for tax cuts for areas where new housing is built. |
Time to ban the use of bailiffs
21/08/2023 Councils have the power to end the use of bailiffs for good. It’s time for them to show leadership, says Joe Cox, senior policy officer, Debt Justice. |
Council tax rises to 10% of income in some areas
16/08/2023 The council tax burden in some parts of the country has increased to over 10% of the average income, new research from the Taxpayers’ Alliance has revealed. |
Local government funding system has 'broken down'
15/08/2023 The funding system for local government has ‘broken down’ and what councils currently receive from Whitehall and council tax barely reflects need, a think-tank has warned. |
Plans to increase Scottish council tax published
12/07/2023 The Scottish government has published its proposals to increase council tax for those living in the highest value properties. |
Waltham Forest Council appoints Voicescape to help drive up Council Tax collections
12/07/2023 Voicescape has strengthened its public sector position, after being appointed by Waltham Forest Council – its sixth local gov client win in the last year. |
Low-income households in Bristol could pay more council tax
29/06/2023 Bristol City Council is considering reducing the support it gives low-income working age households to pay their council tax. |
Council tax arrears hit ‘historic high’ of £5.5bn
26/06/2023 The amount of unpaid council tax has reached a ‘new historic high’ of £5.5bn, according to official figures released by the DLUHC. |
Progress on devolution 'too slow' - LGA vice-president
16/06/2023 A Local Government Association vice-president has expressed ‘serious concerns about the Government’s increasing desire to centralise local service delivery across England out of Whitehall’. |
Council tax up nearly 80% in three decades
13/06/2023 Council tax has increased by 79% in real terms on average since it was introduced 30 years ago, according to new figures. |
Long-term solution sought to drainage board pressure
12/06/2023 Councils are seeking a ‘long-term solution’ as internal drainage boards (IDB) warn increasing energy costs will pile further pressure on council budgets. |
Council errors led resident to be unfairly threatened with court
03/05/2023 Clerical confusion and billing errors led to a Barnet resident being unfairly threatened with court action for not paying her council tax, Ombudsman finds. |
Welsh Government to detail council tax reform later this year
03/05/2023 The Welsh Government has revealed it will announce details of its council tax reforms later this year. |
Nearly £19bn of benefits go unclaimed
02/05/2023 The total amount of unclaimed income-related benefits and social tariffs is now £18.7bn a year, a new study has found. |
Urban councils call for redistributive funding model
02/05/2023 A network of urban councils has launched a manifesto calling on the Government to end competitive bidding and return to a redistributive council funding model. |
Number of empty homes at highest level in decade
26/04/2023 The number of empty homes in London has risen to the highest level since 2010, according to the latest figures. |
COSLA welcomes plans to double tax on empty homes
17/04/2023 Councils in Scotland could soon be able to charge up to double the full rate of council tax on empty and second homes, the Scottish government has announced. |
County council chiefs issue ‘bleak’ finance warning
23/03/2023 County councils need to make £1bn worth of savings in order to cope with ‘unprecedented’ financial pressures, county council chiefs say. |
Bailiffs breaking rules on ‘massive scale’, says charity
22/03/2023 Bailiffs are breaking the rules on a ‘massive scale’ and driving people deeper into poverty, charity warns. |
District councils ‘starved of cash’, local leaders warn
22/03/2023 District councils say they are being starved of cash while county authorities are being allowed to raise their bills, causing a ‘devastating’ impact. |
Northern Powerhouse group calls for ‘proper fiscal devolution’
20/03/2023 New council tax ‘super bands’ covering the most valuable properties and the devolution of stamp duty will help local leaders retain local cash, report says. |
Council apologises for telling widower he is dead
20/03/2023 A Norfolk council has apologised after ‘human error’ led to a letter being sent to a widower about his own death. |
Monmouthshire CC clamps down on second homes
17/03/2023 Monmouthshire County Council has become the latest local authority in Wales to clamp down on second homes. |
Croydon approves 15% tax hike
09/03/2023 Croydon LBC has approved a 15% council tax increase as part of a 2023-24 budget that was originally rejected. |
New Lake District authority doubles tax on second homes
08/03/2023 The new Westmorland and Furness Council has agreed to introduce a 100% council tax premium on second homes. |
Over 50% of councils set to cut spending on services
07/03/2023 Half of councils are planning to cut spending on services, increase commercial investments or spend their reserves to make ends meet this year, poll reveals. |
Grant councils power to fight ‘exploitative lets’, think tank says
23/02/2023 Councils should be given more powers to set the rules about who can buy properties as one measure to tackle ‘exploitative lets’, think tank says. |
Woking Borough Council warns of possible S114
22/02/2023 Woking Borough Council has warned that it is ‘in the territory’ of effective bankruptcy as it struggles with over £2bn of debt. |
Council in £540m debt write off plea
17/02/2023 Croydon LBC has asked Government to write off £540m of its debt in 2023-24 to ‘restore financial sustainability’. |
Auditor sounded alarm over BCP budget
15/02/2023 Grave warnings were issued about 11th hour changes to BCP Council’s budget before frustrated leader Drew Mellor resigned, it has emerged. |
Majority of councils opt for 5% council tax rises
14/02/2023 Three quarters of councils will increase their council tax by the maximum allowed without a referendum in April. |
Westminster council unveils cost-of-living crisis budget
07/02/2023 Westminster City Council has unveiled a budget aimed at helping residents hit by the cost-of-living crisis. |
Tax referendum threshold raised for three councils
06/02/2023 Thurrock, Croydon and Slough will be allowed to increase council tax beyond the referendum limits imposed on others, the Government has confirmed. |
Voicescape appointed by Hartlepool Borough Council after raft of revenue and benefits wins
11/01/2023 Voicescape has strengthened its footprint in the public sector, after being appointed by Hartlepool BC.. This follows a number of local government client wins. |
Brown to ask Government to bypass referendum limit
05/01/2023 The chief executive of troubled Slough Council is preparing to ask the Government for permission to increase council tax above the 5% legal limit. |
Council proposes stopping council tax for poorer families
22/12/2022 Stafford Borough Council is proposing changes to its local council tax reduction scheme which will mean some families will pay no council tax next year. |
South Hams council to double council tax on second homes
21/12/2022 Second home owners in the South Hams area of Devon will soon have to pay double the council tax amount for the area. |
Districts push for council tax flexibility
12/12/2022 Districts are pushing the Government to allow them to increase council tax by more than 3% or £5 without a referendum. |
New regulatory body for bailiffs launched
30/11/2022 A new regulatory body for bailiffs was launched today as new figures reveal over a third of families fear the cost-of-living crisis will force them into debt. |
Autumn Statement: Hunt confirms council tax rises of 5%
17/11/2022 Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has announced a likely 5% hike in council tax, as well as swinging public spending cuts, as part of a dramatic Autumn Statement. |
Council's bankruptcy warning over Chagossian influx
16/11/2022 A council has warned it could be forced to effectively declare bankruptcy if it has to fund housing for thousands of people of Chagossian descent. |
Councils could be forced to hike council tax by 20% over next two years
16/11/2022 Council leaders are warning council tax must rise by 20% over the next two years in order to meet ‘spiralling’ financial costs. |
Mini budgets, big budgets – the need for stability and direction is clear
14/11/2022 Sean Sutton argues revenues and benefits have always been at the forefront of implementing new and innovative ways of delivering services – no more so than in the current climate. |
How Middlesbrough Council increased engagement rates by 59% of residents in Council Tax arrears
03/11/2022 Middlesbrough Council embarked on a six-month pilot with Voicescape to improve customer engagement over outstanding payments. |
Cornwall Council warns of cuts to fill £62m hole
02/11/2022 Cornwall Council has warned that it may be forced to cut spending on discretionary services as it seeks to fill a budget gap of £62m. |
Deadline for council tax rebate extended
01/11/2022 Councils have been given longer to help households claim their council tax rebate. |
Mini-Budget: Government in 'early discussions' on Investment Zones
23/09/2022 The Government is in ‘early discussions with nearly 40 places’ including Tees Valley and the West Midlands about creating new Investment Zones offering tax cuts for businesses, the chancellor has confirmed. |
Council tax on Yorkshire second homes to double
21/09/2022 The council tax on second homes in North Yorkshire could double in a move aimed at tackling the housing crisis, the county council has announced. |
Council tax rebates now issued to 80% of eligible households
28/07/2022 Nearly 80% of eligible households have now received their £150 council tax rebate, the latest figures have shown. |
Council tax levy could replace TV licencing fee, argues report
18/07/2022 A universal household levy linked to council tax bills could offer a better alternative to the BBC's existing licence fee, a report from the House of Lords has argued. |
Shell is helping power the journey towards a circular paving industry with Shell Bitumen LT R, a new product for roads that uses plastics destined for landfill as part of the additives to make the bitumen.
Effective Energy Group is now offering its support to the 40 Local Authorities who have received a share of the £430m to deliver their projects on the ground by surveying properties and installing measures.
Dougie Belmore explains how one of the main interfaces between you and Bacs is about to change.