Council Tax To Increase In Wealden

Wealden District Council is to increase its share of council tax by 2.99 per cent — the maximum amount permitted without a local referendum. 

The increase, which equates to an extra £6.05 for Band D household’s annual bill, was agreed as part of the authority’s annual budget at a full council meeting on Wednesday (February 22). 

According to the council’s medium term financial plan, the increase is set to be repeated each year until at least 2028. The council plans to find around £2m of savings during this same time period, but not in the coming financial year. 

This comes alongside plans to increase officer pay by 3 per cent in 2023-24, with further 2 per cent annual pay increases up to 2028.

Cllr Neil Waller, the Conservative-controlled council’s cabinet member for finance and benefits, said:

“This is a budget for our residents, protecting them from the full impact of inflation, whilst maintaining current services and investing in the future.

“This is a budget for our staff, investing in the council’s key assets to retain talent, expand capacity and increase resilience, making Wealden District Council the local government employer of choice, in my opinion. 

“This is a budget for the future, underpinned by strategic financial management and protecting the financial viability of the council. To quote the corporate plan, it is a budget that is ambitious for our futures.”

No budget amendments were tabled during the meeting, however, other political parties did offer some criticism of the level of council tax increase proposed by the council’s Conservative administration. 

Among those to offer criticism was Cllr Stephen Shing, leader of the Independent Democrat group. He said:

“We are one of the wealthiest councils in Britain. Most importantly we have a duty to look after those wonderful groups in Wealden [and] offer them a special discount of council tax for 2023/24.

“The Conservative group believe that freezing the members’ allowance is a good thing therefore to freeze council tax for one year is a better thing for you to do.”

Liberal Democrat group leader Paul Sparks, meanwhile, noted that the increase was more than one of its immediate neighbours.

He said:

“I’ve sat in this chamber for the last four years listening to Conservative cabinet explaining how good they are with managing the council’s finances and much better than neighbouring non-Conservative-controlled councils.  

“Therefore it is very interesting to note that Lewes District Council, with a Liberal Democrat/Green alliance, are recommending a council tax increase one-third of that being recommended by this council. 

“I do accept that central government have not been helpful by only announcing a one-year provisional local government finance settlement, but this is the same for all councils, including Lewes.”

These interventions saw some criticism from Cllr Waller, who described Lewes District Council’s one per cent increase as ‘a mistake’ and argued that a council tax freeze would cost the council more than £2m by 2028. This, Cllr Waller said, would double the amount of savings the council would need to find during that period. 

Ultimately, the budget was passed on a majority vote, with non-Conservatives abstaining from the vote.

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During the same meeting, councillors also agreed (without discussion) plans to introduce 100 per cent council tax discounts for the district’s lowest income households. 

The introduction marks a significant change, as, for the past 10 years, only pensioners have been able to receive more than a 80 per cent discount on their council tax bill.

This system came as a result of changes introduced in 2013, which saw the national council tax benefit replaced with local discount schemes run by individual councils. 

At that time, Wealden — along with most other local authorities — adopted an approach which saw all households required to pay some amount of money, no matter how low their income. 

The council now considers that approach to be flawed, however, as more and more households have been left unable to pay.