Croydon's council tax increase 'less than £1 a week' » Housing » 24dash.com

Council tax bills in Croydon will increase by 3.64 per cent in April, the lowest increase for six years.

For a typical Band D home, that’s just an extra 95p a week.

Croydon Council's element of council tax bills will increase by 3.99% - consistent with its promise to residents never to increase its bills by more than 4 per cent.

This increase is below the current retail price index (RPI) measure of inflation and in line with increases elsewhere in the country.

However, the figure is still higher than leading councillors would like due to the inadequate level of funding Croydon receives from central government - a point pressed by council leader Mike Fisher when he recently met John Healey, the Minister for Local Government.

Croydon will receive an increase of just 2 per cent in 2008/9, well below the rate of inflation and the lowest increase of any council in the country.

All of the extra money the council is raising through council tax will be used to pay for improvements to services including:
     •  the introduction of extra neighbourhood enforcement officers to assist the police in the fight against crime and anti-social behaviour;
     •  a multi-million pound investment to make it easier for people to recycle by extending the kerbside collection of cardboard, plastics and green waste throughout the borough, providing recycling facilities for more blocks of flats, upgrading some of the borough’s  neighbourhood recycling centres and improving recycling facilities in the council’s own offices;
     •  £500,000 to improve attendance and behaviour at our schools and attainment in the key subjects of English, maths and science;
     •  extra investment for care of some of the most vulnerable people in Croydon who have disabilities or mental health problems;
     •  funding to keep Purley Pool open until the new leisure centre opens at Waddon and to re-develop Thornton Heath library; and
     •  investment to strengthen the performance of the council as a whole by ensuring it has  a clearer understanding of what residents want and motivated staff with the right skills and a commitment to customer service.

To deliver these improvements while keeping the increase in Band D council tax below £1 a week, Croydon Council has had to make itself much more efficient - as recently recognised by the independent Audit Commission.

The 2008/09 budget contains a record level of efficiencies of £12.068 million - about 5 per cent of the council’s budget.

Examples of ways in which the Croydon is improving its performance include:
     •  collecting more of the money it is owed.  This year the council is on course to collect 96 per cent of the council tax it is owed, compared with 93.9 per cent in 2005/6;
     •  taking a tough approach to fraud - the council’s corporate anti-fraud team is on target to deliver £1.35 million of savings this year;
     •  reducing sickness absence from an average of 8.7 days a year per full time employee in 2005/6 to 6.47 days a year now, the lowest rate in London;
     •  checking to see whether it is cheaper to contract a private company or charity to provide a service than employ council officers to do it.  The council has just awarded the contract for the management of its leisure centres to a charity called Fusion, saving at least £5.7 million over the next ten years;
     •  streamlining the organisation.  The council is in the process of reviewing its management structure, which should deliver savings of over £500,000.

In addition, the council has announced a five-year draft capital programme of £255 million including funding for the regeneration of Coulsdon, South Norwood and Waddon, extra money for maintaining roads and investment in the call centre and one-stop shop.

Councillor Fisher said: “Last year we set the lowest council tax increase for five years.

“We have matched the lowest level once again - keeping our promise to taxpayers at a time when we’ve been forced to cope with the meanest grant settlement the Government has handed to any council.

“And we have been able to find extra money for the things residents tell us they want improved, such as community safety, recycling and standards in our schools.

“Through excellent financial management we have again delivered a sustainable budget and shown Croydon to be an efficient, quietly competent council - one that’s been rated by the Audit Commission as being among the very best at managing its resources.

“We can be satisfied that we have got the council’s finances on a firm footing with reserves now at a prudent level.

“However, it is worth repeating that if only we had received a fairer deal in terms of the support Croydon households get from Government then the council tax increase could have been much lower. “

The cabinet will meet to consider the budget on 11 February and formal adoption of the budget and next year’s council tax will take place two weeks’ later at the council meeting on 25 February.