Berkshire council increases council tax by 9%

Council tax in Windsor and Maidenhead will rise by almost nine per cent from next month after a vote by councillors.

The rise of 8.99 per cent was agreed as part of the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead’s (RBWM) budget for the coming financial year.

Councillor Lynne Jones, responsible for finance, said the rise was an ‘important first step’ towards restoring the council’s funding and services.

RBWM councillors voted to approve the budget at a meeting on Wednesday, March 5.

Independent councillor Jones said council services had suffered from years of council tax cuts and freezes that had also left RBWM unable to cover its costs.

She said: “This budget will mean that we can start to replace services that were historically stripped out under the previous administrations.”

She said the budget would restore services and included additional money areas such as social services and temporary accommodation, which councils across the country are struggling with.

Support

However the budget also included £103 million in support from the government that effectively acts as a loan that the council will have to pay back.

Council finance chiefs have warned that this will leave RBWM ‘worse off as a consequence’ and that it may need to ask for larger council tax increases again in the near future.

Liberal Democrat council leader Simon Werner admitted the budget was ‘not the budget I wanted to be presenting to you, but this is the reality’.

Conservative opposition councillors opposed the budget and the council tax rise.

Councillor Sally Coneron said council leaders had ‘opted for the easy way out – higher taxes, higher debt and higher spending’.

She said the council should make ‘tough but responsible choices’ on spending.

She said: “Anyone voting for this budget is voting for yet more debt, more tax and declining services for residents.”

Independent councillors were split on whether to support the budget.

Councillor Jodie Grove from the Local Independents group said: “A vote against the budget is effectively a vote for declaring bankruptcy.”

But others issued warnings over the debt that the government’s support package would leave the council in.

Wisdom Da Costa of the Independent Alliance group said financial support was ‘not a get of jail card – it is a get into jail later card’.

He said Royal Borough residents should have had the chance to vote in a referendum on previous plans for a 25 per cent council tax rise.

Council leaders had said this would avoid the need for the government loan, but the government refused permission – meaning it only go ahead if residents voted for it.

Councillors voted to approve the budget with 27 votes in favour and 11 against.

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