Government plan to cap Medway CouncilDespite this year's Council Tax rise being reduced to 5·5%, despite the severe under-funding from Central Government and a £995.000 clawback, we are to be capped. The council has been notified of this intention, and has 21 days in which to appeal, which is being done.
The somewhat spurious claim being made by Ministers is that Medway's Council Tax rise is excessive though the actual level of tax is far lower than any other such Authority in Kent, and one of the lowest of any Unitary Authorities in England.
Even more significantly, it is the apparently deliberate year-on-year underfunding of Medway from central government grant shares that have been responsible for the need for any rise in Medway's Council Tax. This year this was calculated by Ministers themselves as being some £6 million short. Coupled with a so-called clawback of just under another million pounds, in itself adding 1·3%, this has resulted in an unavoidable rise of 5·5%, a mere half a percent above the government's now-stated limit.
It is very interesting indeed that this almost last-minute clawback, which seemed to come from nowhere and for no reason, was in itself solely responsible for our exceeding that formerly-unstated limit, and thus appears to have been deliberately engineered to force this result.
Especially when those same Ministers' guidance to Medway Council's Leaders indicated that what we ended up with would be acceptable (specifically: similar to last year; and note that this year's increase was a lower percentage than last year's!) and capping criteria are never announced until after the decision has been taken by Ministers, this does smell rather strongly of a plot...
If the capping is confirmed after the appeal has been determined, the people of Medway will have to pay for the costs of re-billing all householders for the revised level of Council Tax, and this and the reduced income will both hit front-line services, which will therefore suffer as a result. Again, this appears to be part of the government's plan.
The outcome of Medway Council's appeal will be know by June or July, and will be announced here and in the local media.