VE Day: Council duties under the Armed Forces Covenant
As we mark the 80th anniversary of VE Day, Geoff Wild, Legal & Governance Consultant, looks at the duties of councils under the Armed Forces Covenant.
One in 6 relaxed about council tax fraud
29/04/2025 One in 6 adults have admitted to either falsely claiming the Single Person Discount (SPD) or knowing someone who had in the past year, new research reveals. |
Welsh council tax rise of 7.2%
14/04/2025 Local authorities in Wales are raising council tax by an average of 7.2% in 2025/26 - the second largest rise for more than 20 years. |
McMahon: Government will look at council tax reform options
21/03/2025 Minister Jim McMahon has promised the Government will look at council tax reform options. |
Council tax hikes to hit North East harder than London
19/03/2025 Households living in the North East will be hit with higher council tax bills than those living in the Greater London area, new research has revealed. |
Nine in 10 councils to hike council tax to maximum
17/03/2025 The vast majority of councils in England will be increasing council tax by the maximum for the third year in a row, research reveals. |
Council bailouts could ‘create longer-term risk’, warns NAO
27/02/2025 The spending watchdog has called for a ‘whole-system’ approach to fixing local government finance and warned that bailouts could ‘create longer-term risk.’ |
Councillor quits after tax arrears revealed
24/02/2025 A Lancashire councillor has resigned after it was revealed he owed almost £4,000 in council tax. |
Investigations into Godstone sinkhole delayed
24/02/2025 Authorities have delayed investigations into the cause of a huge sinkhole in a Surrey village, citing safety concerns. |
Councillor barred from budget vote over unpaid tax
20/02/2025 A borough councillor in Lancashire owes almost £4,000 in council tax, making him unable to vote on the authority’s budget. |
East Lothian first in Scotland to confirm 10% council tax hike
19/02/2025 East Lothian Council is the first local authority in Scotland to confirm a double-digit council tax increase. |
‘Regressive’ council tax is a growing burden on poorest, report says
17/02/2025 The average council tax bill rose by 77% in real terms between 1994 and 2020, analysis has found. |
Scottish Government to consult on council tax reform
11/02/2025 The Scottish Government has announced plans to review the devolved nation’s council tax system to make it ‘fairer’. |
One in 10 councils considering bin collection cuts
05/02/2025 Forty-two local authorities – or one in 10 – are considering cuts to waste collection services, new data reveals. |
LGA: Council tax increases no substitute for fixing funding
04/02/2025 Council leaders have warned council tax increases place ‘more financial burden on households’ without fixing the long-term pressures facing local government. |
Tax hikes agreed for just six councils
03/02/2025 Councils facing financial woes have been told to scale back council tax rises, just weeks before they put their new budgets in place. |
Majority of county councils to hike up council tax
31/01/2025 Nine in ten county councils will have to raise council tax by the maximum permitted, the County Council Network (CCN) has warned. |
Hollywood star loses two-year legal bid to avoid council tax
28/01/2025 American actor Mercer Boffey has lost a legal challenge to avoid paying council tax on his grade II listed property in Richmond. |
Local authorities ask permission to raise council tax above referendum threshold
20/01/2025 More councils have pleaded with ministers to increase their council tax above the 5% referendum limit without holding a poll, it has emerged. |
Cheshire East asks to raise council tax by 9.99%
15/01/2025 Cash-strapped Cheshire East has asked the Government for permission to increase council tax by 9.99% for the 2025-26 financial year. |
Sector call for council tax review
13/12/2024 Local government has called for a ‘fundamental review of council tax' in a long-awaited report. |
Windsor and Maidenhead wants 25% council tax increase amid section 114 warning
11/12/2024 Cash-strapped Windsor & Maidenhead BC has warned a section 114 notice is ‘almost inevitable' if it is blocked from raising council tax by a quarter. |
Council proposes 15% council tax hike
04/12/2024 North Somerset Council has proposed a 15% rise in council tax and has asked residents if they would donate £1,000. |
Call for ‘courage’ to fix council finances
21/11/2024 A think-tank has urged the Government to show ‘political courage’ in reforming the local government finance system in next spring’s comprehensive spending review. |
Council apologises after council tax debt confusion
19/11/2024 Buckinghamshire Council has issued an apology after a man was threatened by bailiffs over unpaid council tax. |
Suffolk talks devo with minister
19/11/2024 Suffolk CC's leader has said he remains committed to devolution in the county ‘streamlining local government' following a meeting with minister Jim McMahon. |
Council tax cap to remain at 5%
14/11/2024 Council tax increases will be kept at the 5% cap next year, Labour have confirmed. |
Council facing bankruptcy calls for ‘fairer’ funding
08/11/2024 North Somerset Council, which has warned it is at risk of serving a Section 114 notice, has launched a campaign calling for a ‘fairer’ funding deal. |
LGA: Care leavers should get council tax exemption
04/11/2024 Care leavers should be exempt from paying council tax to help give them financial stability when they leave care, local authority leaders have said. |
Authorities propose council tax rises on second and empty homes
29/10/2024 Two district councils have announced proposals to increase council tax on second and empty homes. |
Council tax reform could hit thousands of households
03/10/2024 An estimated 13,500 households could be worse off under Leicester City Council’s plans to reform council tax support. |
Brum misses out on £165m in council tax
02/10/2024 Birmingham City Council has missed out on over £165m worth of council tax in five years, new research reveals. |
Norfolk faces £45m budget gap
01/10/2024 Norfolk County Council is planning millions of pounds of cuts it does ‘not want to make’ in the face of a £44.75m deficit in its budget for next year. |
Martin Lewis: Councils collect unpaid tax like ‘worst loan sharks’
10/09/2024 Consumer finance expert Martin Lewis has criticised the ‘grotesque’ methods authorities use to recover council tax and urged the Government to change the law on debt collection. |
Waverley to consult on ‘voluntary council tax’
30/08/2024 Waverley Borough Council is set to consider asking some residents to pay a ‘voluntary council tax’ to fund discretionary services. |
Dorset councils owed £45m in council tax
27/08/2024 Dorset's two main councils are owed more than £45m in council tax arrears from the last three years, a new study has revealed. |
Abolish grant support for five local authorities to raise £600m, think-tank suggests
19/08/2024 The Government should ‘reduce or eliminate all support' for a number of local authorities where council tax is low, a centre-right think-tank report has suggested. |
Cheshire East sets out plan to tackle £100m deficit
16/08/2024 Plans to address a £100m budget gap over four years will be considered by Cheshire East councillors next week. |
Flood management funding ‘not working’
15/08/2024 The Government’s failure to devise a fair funding system for flood defences means wider service cuts for at-risk communities, council bosses have warned. |
Councillors advised to write off £1.25m of debts
06/08/2024 Officers have recommended that Peterborough City Council writes off £1.25m of ‘irrecoverable’ debts. |
Unpaid council tax surges to £6bn
06/08/2024 Council tax arrears have soared to £6bn a year, a sign that the collection process is ‘failing local authorities and taxpayers alike’, according to a report published today. |
Government urged to devolve council tax powers
31/07/2024 The Government should devolve the power to fix council tax rates to local authorities, a think-tank has urged. |
Will increasing council tax on second homes help?
30/07/2024 John Webber, head of Business Rates, Colliers, discusses why he thinks taxing second homeowners more won’t alleviate the shortfall in local authority finance. |
Council tax hikes on second homes backfiring
25/07/2024 Councils in the south west of England that have increased council tax on second homes are missing out on £55m of income due to the business rates system. |
Welsh Government drops controversial council tax notice plan
10/07/2024 The Welsh Government has dropped its controversial plan to end the legal requirement to publish council tax notices in local newspapers. |
Scrap council tax referendum limits, says DCN
03/07/2024 District councils should have the powers to increase council tax referendum limits to at least 10% as a first step to scrapping them, DCN says. |
Poll reveals support for tax increases to boost public services
01/07/2024 More than half of UK households support investment in public services even if it means they are taxed more, according to new analysis. |
Greens to push for council tax revaluation
14/06/2024 Elected Greens will push for a re-evaluation of council tax bands to ‘reflect big changes in value’ since the 1990s, the party has pledged in its manifesto. |
Welsh editors in warning over council tax notice law
11/06/2024 Editors in Wales have issued a warning over the Welsh Government’s plans to stop council tax notices being published in local newspapers. |
Hunt rules out ‘expensive’ council tax revaluation
06/06/2024 Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has pledged that if elected a Conservative government would not undertake a council tax revaluation. |
Wales pushes back council tax reform
15/05/2024 Council tax reforms will not come into force until 2028, the Welsh Government has announced. |
Scottish councils face £585m funding gap
14/05/2024 Council leaders across Scotland have called on Holyrood to find a ‘meaningful solution’ to the half a billion pound shortfall faced by local government. |
Rutland residents face highest council tax bills
09/05/2024 Households in Rutland, Nottingham and Dorset are facing the highest council tax bills in England this year, according to a new analysis. |
£23bn in benefits goes unclaimed
19/04/2024 The total amount of unclaimed benefits in the UK is now £22.7 billion a year, analysis has found. |
Councils refer 600,000 people to bailiffs
17/04/2024 Local authorities referred almost 600,000 people to bailiffs last year due to failure to pay council tax, according to a freedom of information request. |
Scottish councils’ debt is one-and-a-half times funding
08/04/2024 The debt of councils in Scotland is more than one-and-a-half times the latest local government funding settlement, the Scottish Conservatives have found. |
Parish and town council spending nearly hits £800m
02/04/2024 Parish and town council spending is set to rise from £708m in 2023/24 to £783m in 2024-25. |
Ministers stand firm on tax bands
26/03/2024 MPs told there are ‘no plans’ to revalue council tax bands due to the cost and disproportionate impact on lower-income households and pensioners. |
Scottish councils in tax U-turn
25/03/2024 Argyll and Bute and Inverclyde councils had both voted to raise tax in defiance of the Scottish Government's efforts to secure a nationwide freeze. |
Council tax rises leading to ‘levelling down’
22/03/2024 Households in the Northeast are set to pay £420 more for an average band D property in council tax than those in Greater London. |
Welsh council tax rises finalised
13/03/2024 The average council tax rise for Welsh local authorities will be just over 8% next year. |
Limited exemptions for empty homes powers
11/03/2024 Councils will face only a limited number of exemptions from new powers allowing them to levy higher taxes on empty homes, ministers have confirmed. |
Woking BC approves 10% council tax hike
06/03/2024 Woking BC councillors have approved a nearly 10% council tax hike authorised by the Government after the council's issuing of a Section 114 notice. |
Council funding crisis ‘existential’
01/03/2024 Local government’s funding crisis threatens to derail ambitions to level up the north of England, it has been claimed. |
Scottish Budget 'not good' for communities
28/02/2024 Next year’s Scottish Budget is ‘not good’ for communities, council leaders have said. |
Council rejects tax freeze offer
23/02/2024 Argyll and Bute Council has become the first to reject the Scottish Government’s council tax freeze. |
Brum set to sell off £750m of assets
20/02/2024 Cash-strapped Birmingham City Council is set to sell off £750m of assets and cut spending on services by £300m in an effort to balance the books. |
Almost all areas set for maximum council tax rise
20/02/2024 Virtually every local authority with responsibility for social care in England plans on raising its council tax by the maximum 4.99% this April, according to new analysis. |
Council tax total set to exceed £57bn
19/02/2024 The total amount raised from council tax is now expected to exceed £57.4bn by 2028, more than double the 2009 figure of £25.3bn, new analysis reveals. |
Norfolk council to double council tax on second homes
12/02/2024 Second-home owners in north Norfolk will see their council tax double from next year. |
Northern households pay £250 more council tax
12/02/2024 Households in the North are paying on average £250 a year more than they should for council tax due to ' outdated council tax bands’, campaigners say. |
Wales could drive agenda on council tax, report argues
12/02/2024 Wales could have a chance to deal with unfairness in the council tax system and drive the agenda for other nations and regions to follow, says think-tank. |
Thurrock braced for 8% council tax hike
08/02/2024 Thurrock residents could soon be hit with an 8% increase in council tax as the local authority attempts to close its budget gap. |
Pembrokeshire council proposes record 21% council tax hike
08/02/2024 Pembrokeshire County Council has proposed the highest ever percentage increase in council tax in Wales. |
Brum granted permission to raise council tax by 10%
07/02/2024 Levelling up secretary Michael Gove has approved Birmingham City Council’s request to increase council tax by up to 10% without a local referendum. |
Gove sheds light on productivity plans
05/02/2024 Michael Gove has released further details of the Government's productivity plans, including a clampdown on consultants and diversity schemes. |
Council financial crisis ‘out of control’
31/01/2024 MPs have issued a stark warning on the ‘very real’ prospect of more councils in England ‘effectively going bust’ if the Government does not address a £4bn funding gap. |
Council leaders demand right to set tax levels
26/01/2024 Local authority leaders in Scotland have renewed their fight to set their own council taxes – despite the pledge of a freeze by first minister Humza Yousaf. |
Call for council tax overhaul
26/01/2024 Work should begin now on the ‘long-overdue’ revaluation of all domestic properties in England to bolster local government finance, a think-tank has argued. |
Argyll and Bute considers 10% council tax hike
25/01/2024 Argyll and Bute Council are considering a council tax rise of 10% in order to tackle ‘enormous budget challenges’. |
Council referrals to bailiffs up 20%
24/01/2024 Referrals to bailiffs in England and Wales to recover council debts have risen by nearly 20%, a BBC investigation has found. |
Conservative MPs call for emergency funding for councils
22/01/2024 MPs representing county areas have called on the Government to provide emergency funding to cash-strapped councils to prevent further cuts to local services. |
Oxfordshire CC budget proposals ‘£900,000 short’
19/01/2024 Oxfordshire County Council has published proposals to save over £9.8m but is still £900,000 short of what is required for a balanced budget. |
Thurrock avoids 10% council tax hike
12/01/2024 Cash-strapped Thurrock Council has pledged residents will not face a 10% council tax rise – but still needs to confirm how much extra they must pay. |
Somerset in capitalisation request amid ‘financial emergency’
10/01/2024 Somerset Council is to seek a capitalisation direction and permission to raise council tax by up to 10% as it attempts to stave off a section 114 notice. |
Birmingham faces 10% council tax hike
10/01/2024 Cash-strapped Birmingham City Council could raise council tax by 10% if the Government gives its finance plan the go-ahead. |
Somerset Council warns of ‘heart-breaking’ cuts
08/01/2024 Public toilets, theatres, and leisure services in Somerset are set to be hit by cuts as the unitary authority attempts to bridge a £100m budget gap. |
Welsh minister backs tax reforms
03/01/2024 One of the candidates to become first minister of Wales has backed reform of council tax. |
Council tax freeze to cost £156m
02/01/2024 Scottish councils face a real terms cut of up to £156m next year as a result of the council tax freeze, new research has found. |
Scottish councils get £14bn boost
19/12/2023 Local government in Scotland is set to benefit from a £14bn boost but council tax will be frozen despite criticisms of the plan by local authority leaders. |
Tax referendum cap lifted for three councils
19/12/2023 A number of councils are set to raise council tax by up to 10% next year without holding referendums. |
Council tax freeze costs Scottish Government £300m
15/12/2023 Fully funding local authorities for Scotland’s council tax freeze contributes significantly to the £1.5bn shortfall facing Holyrood, experts have warned. |
Brum requests permission to increase council tax over 5%
13/12/2023 Birmingham City Council is set to apply for permission to increase council tax by more than 5% to help address a £300m budget gap. |
Councillors recommend 300% empty properties’ council tax
08/12/2023 Owners of long-term empty properties in Lewes are set to be hit by council tax premiums of up to 300% from April 2024. |
Gove announces funding settlement
05/12/2023 Michael Gove has announced the local government finance policy statement, ensuring councils will receive a 3% minimum funding increase before council tax. |
Bath doubles council tax on second homes
05/12/2023 Council tax on second homes in Bath is set to double as the local authority seeks to tackle the local housing shortage. |
Poorer households should not be chased for council tax debt, MPs say
01/12/2023 The Government should ensure local authorities are not ‘aggressively’ chasing council tax debt from those who can least afford it, MPs have said. |
Wales consults on council tax reform
14/11/2023 The Welsh Government has launched a consultation on redesigning the country's council tax system. |
Council looks to address £100m ‘black hole’
01/11/2023 Somerset Council is considering measures, including reducing staffing and cutting services to statutory levels, to cover a £100m funding gap. |
Welsh councils face £750m shortfall
25/10/2023 Local government finances in Wales are on an ‘unsustainable path’, according to a report from Cardiff University’s Wales Governance Centre. |
DCN in cuts warning
24/10/2023 Cultural services, community support and parks and green spaces are all at risk of cuts without a boost to the local government finance settlement, respondents to a District Councils’ Network (DCN) survey have warned. |
