Council Tax

A hot topic recently has been Council Tax. I’m sure most are now aware that SCC are not going for a referendum.

Last Thursday at full Council the final figures for 2017/2018 were determined. The following shows the WBC element and the total amount of CT due for each band:

Band	WBC Portion	Total CT

A	£151.14		£1,188.55
B	£176.33		£1,386.65
C	£201.52		£1,584.74
D	£226.71		£1,782.83
E	£277.09		£2,179.01
F	£327.47		£2,575.20
G	£377.85		£2,971.38
H	£453.42		£3,565.66

CT is due from April and WBC will request 10 payments from April to January 2018. If you wish, you are able to pay it over 12 months. You will need to call WBC to arrange this.

Finally, you may have read in the news concerns around WBC borrowing. I share some of those concerns, however I am satisfied that most of the borrowing is ‘good’ borrowing and as current Chair of the Finance Task Group, apply pressure to WBC to ensure that borrowings can be classed as good. The key point about good borrowing is that it frequently is used to purchase an asset which pays WBC an income. This income effectively subsidises CT and for 2017 is expected to be £55.13 for a band D property.

If WBC didn’t borrow in this way, we’d have had a clear choice, increase CT by £55.13 for each band D property in 2017 or cut services. If you wish to read the WBC papers going through this, look on the WBC website for documents from the November 2016 Executive meeting.

Other Councils in Surrey are beginning to adopt this model as the most palatable way of protecting services as there is fierce opposition to increasing taxes. If you are a resident of Heathlands, I’m happy to spend time allaying your fears over WBC borrowing if you wish.

Cheers.

Kevin