Cabinet proposes 4.99% council tax increase to Full Council

Camden Council’s Cabinet last night proposed a 4.99% council tax increase for the coming financial year, with the decision now passing to Full Council on Monday (February 26).

Cabinet are recommending an increase made up of 2.99% on the 2017/18 core council tax level and a 2% Adult Social Care Precept. If agreed it would mean an increase from April of £1.09 a week for a Band D property.

Council tax level would still be 19% below what it would have been had it risen in line with inflation since 2006.

The Cabinet report, available here, outlined that ‘the council continues to operate in a financially challenging environment, with further grant cuts of £10m in 2018/19, taking total like-for-like grant cuts to £118m since 2011/12’.

Richard Olszewski, Cabinet Member for Finance and Transformation, said:

“Since 2011 we have seen our Government financial support cut by around half, losing us £118 million in funding. At the same time we are seeing increased demand for our services – particularly for adult social care, with the number of people in Camden aged 75 or over increasing by 30% between 2013 and 2023, and those aged 90 or over rising by over 50%.

“We’ve reduced our costs, delivering savings of £76 million in the last four years. By redeveloping our property that is expensive to maintain, underused or difficult to access, we are using the proceeds to invest £1billion in Camden by 2025. This ensures that, despite only receiving two percent government funding towards our investment programme, we can still build the homes, including at council-level rents, schools and community facilities, our communities need.

“But the severity of the cuts handed down to us by the Government means that, despite this work, we still need to propose a council tax increase to Full Council in order to safeguard Camden’s valued services.”