Eric Pickles has confessed he would have ‘preferred’ a 1% council tax referendum threshold, despite the recent announcement of a maintained 2% cap.
Conservatives were reportedly pushing for all local decisions on council tax raises over 1.5% to be taken to a community vote.
However, the Department for Communities and Local Government this week confirmed the limit would remain at 2%.
‘I would have preferred a threshold of 1% but I was quite willing to compromise on one and a half,’ the communities secretary told the BBC.
Pickles also confirmed he was ‘quite relaxed’ about the threshold standing at 2%, adding that he was happy for town halls to raise tax by 7% if they had the support of their local community.
Figures released today have revealed 137 councils are planning to accept government grant for freezing local levies.
‘We are offering the councils the opportunity to freeze. We’ve saved people on their council tax bill the best part of a thousand pounds in the lifetime of this parliament,’ Pickles added.
‘But it is up to them whether they accept it or not. They seem to have got a view that somehow a referendum amounts to a cap: it’s not. I’m very relaxed if a council wants to go to 5%, 6%, 7%, even more, providing it gets the consent of its electorate.’
‘I think this will become the norm, that councils will present a budget to the electorate and people will get an opportunity to decide.’
Surrey CC’s cabinet has approved a 1.99% council tax rise, avoiding what council leader, David Hodge, described as the ‘unnecessary’ cost of a referendum.
