Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assumptions the Autumn Spending Review and the local government finance settlement make about the revenue that will be raised by (1) allowing local authorities the flexibility to raise council tax by up to two per cent without a referendum, (2) the additional two per cent allowed for purposes of social care, and (3) the additional amount allowed for measures in relation to flooding, and by what percentage council taxes will rise on average as a result of those increases.

The provisional local government finance settlement was presented to Parliament in December 2015. Following consultation on the provisional settlement, the final settlement will be published shortly and will be subject to approval of the House of Commons. On the assumption that all authorities will take advantage of the full council tax flexibilities available to them announced in the Autumn Statement and the provisional settlement, council tax bills in England would rise by an average of 3.7 percent in 2016/17.

It is important to note that this compares to an annual increase of 6.2 percent to council tax under the Labour administrations of 1997 to 2010. Average council tax is expected to be lower in real terms in 2019/20 than it was in 2010/11.

The projections of revenue raised under these flexibilities assumes that each local authority’s council tax base will continue to grow at the average rate reported since 2013-14.