Council tax rising in Coventry

Nearly £97 will be added to the average Coventry tax bill this spring. City councillors agreed to increase council tax by 4.9 per cent, including a two per cent hike for social care/

The increase was approved despite claims the move was a “political choice.”

The overall rise of 5.1 per cent include hikes for police and fire and is the maximum possible rise without a referendum.

The increase is above the current UK inflation rate of three per cent.

The average city household will pay £96.77 extra in tax as a result, the council said earlier this month. The move was voted through by councillors from the ruling Labour group and opposition greens.

A bid by the Conservative group to reduce the council tax hike to 4.3 per cent failed. The group’s alternative budget included £1 million in new savings proposals to fund the reduced increase.

Deputy Leader of the group Coun Peter Male told councillors: “This is a policy that recognises that the people of Coventry deserve a break. A break from the ever-increasing burden of inflation-busting council tax increases.”

But opposition leader Coun Gary Ridley told councillors: “Another year, another tax rise” and claimed the rise of 4.9 per cent was a “political choice not an economic necessity.” He said: “The reality is we’ve got higher taxes, deeper potholes and emptier excuses every year.”

However Labour’s finance boss Coun Richard Brown accused the Tories of “clutching at straws.”

He said the group’s move would save a Band D property in the city probably a pound a month. He said: “It is fantasy stuff, it’s desperation, clutching at straws.

“I think the other word that sprang to mind here was tokenism,” he added. “I think that’s what this alternative budget is about.

“It’s not trying to address the raw roots of it as we are trying to do on this side of the chamber.” Coun Brown said he understood it was a challenging time for people and said the plan to raise council tax had not been made lightly.

He claimed the current funding set-up forced councils to rely more on raising money through local taxation by the maximum allowed. And he said that, due to years of funding cuts, the council could not put forward a lower increase in tax this year as it would lose out on the income permanently.

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