Bath & North East Somerset Council has approved a 4.99% council tax increase as it faces a cut in government funding.
The Guildhall in Bath
The 4.99% hike is the maximum that councils can raise their tax without government permission or holding a referendum.
The rise, which applies to the Bath & North East Somerset Council section of the council tax bill, will come into effect from April and see an average band D household pay £90.97 more a year, or £1.75 a week.
The annual charge will be £1,914.03, still below the national average of £2,062.
Council cabinet member for resources Mark Elliott (Lansdown, Liberal Democrat) told the full council meeting on 24th February, where councillors voted on setting the new council tax level and budget: “Under huge financial pressure and with significant cuts from central government, we have produced a robust plan that balances our ambitions for the area with prudence and realism about the continuing very significant rises in social care costs and other inflationary pressures.”
It includes new investment in preventative social work. Councillor Elliott said: “The only ways to arrest these huge inflationary pressures across the council, whether in social care or any of the other services the council delivers, will be to intervene earlier in an effort to prevent higher costs materialising later. But that is not easy in an environment where central government is cutting funding.”
The government has cut its funding to Bath and North East Somerset by £2.4 million as part of its “fair funding review,” with the cut set to rise to £12.55 million in three years.
The council’s budget sets out £4.65 million of cuts and “cost reductions” and £2.59 million of new income generation, including by increasing the cost of parking permits for larger vehicles and increased enforcement of yellow boxes.
Despite concerns these were being used as a “cash cow”, Councillor Elliott insisted the council was not having to make the kinds of cuts some councils were forced to.
The council’s Labour opposition criticised plans to save £250,000 by cutting £10,000 from each of the council’s top 25 contracts.
Leader of the Labour group Robin Moss (Westfield) proposed an amendment to exempt the contract for running public toilets and those held by charity and voluntary groups from the “salami slice” cuts, but the amendment was voted down.
He said: “£10,000 off the top 25 contracts without exempting charity and voluntary sector is wrong. It sends the wrong message out to partners, and for that reason, without those guarantees, the Labour group will be voting against this budget.”
Councillor Elliott said that the council spends £1.2 billion on its top 25 contracts, including £5 million for the one to run its public toilets.
He said the administration was committed to maintaining and improving public toilets, but added: “It is absolutely the right thing to do to target the officers responsible for managing those contracts with savings targets to make sure they are focused on providing value for money for the taxpayer.”
Councillor Steve Hedges (Odd Down, Liberal Democrat) added that it was the Labour government’s reforms which were seeing the council lose £12.55 million in funding over the next three years.
He said: “Money doesn’t come out of fresh air and nor does care, so I suggest the leader of the Labour group write to his Prime Minister and say: ‘Can we have our money back that you’ve nicked please.’”
Councillor Moss said councillors were speaking to Labour ministers, but he insisted: “I have no apology for a Labour government looking at fair funding that is reversing what the Tories did of channelling money to Richmond in North Yorkshire and Richmond in Surrey rather than areas of deprivation.”
He added that the government was writing off 90% of SEND deficits, was providing £20 million for Whiteway and Twerton under the “pride in place” scheme, and was making a long-awaited tourist tax possible.
Councillors voted to approve the council tax rise and 2026/27 budget by 46 votes in favour to six against, with three abstentions.
John Wimperis, Local Democracy Reporter
