Local council leaders have called on the Government to grant parish and town councils a multi-year exemption on council tax referendum principles.
As part of the provisional local government finance settlement for 2022/23, the Government has proposed to exempt parish and town councils from the need to hold referendums in the event of a large council tax increase.
The National Association of Local Councils (NALC) has welcomed this proposal, but argues that only a multi-year exemption would give local councils the certainty and security needed for financial planning.
In their response to the provisional finance settlement, the NALC highlights the fact that during the 2021/22 financial year, the average Band D precept rose by just 2.8% – the lowest percentage point increase in the last decade and the smallest cash increase since 2015/16.
The association argues that this this amounts to ‘pennies’ for local councils and demonstrates that that they would not seek to increase council tax too dramatically if they were exempt from the referendum requirement.
