Kahve

Why is Tower Hamlets Council Tax going up by 5% when government support for Tower Hamlets is also going up 14% when inflation is only up 3.2%? On Wednesday night Councillors will vote on the Mayors budget for the next financial year, if 2/3 vote no they can reject it (but only the Mayor can write a new one so it’s only a power to reject not to change it) Backup here democracy.towerhamlets.gov.u… But there is a mystery in the budget Tower Hamlets like some other east London local authorities is getting a huge increase in government funding from this April, up 14% year on year, and also for the first time in years TH also knows how much they will get 2 and 3 years from now, also really big increases in total. Inflation is up 3.2% (3.6% last month) year on year so any increase in funding above 3.2% is extra money for the Council to spend (at your expense). Other local authorities are having their government grants cut, ours are growing by £42m year on year including business rates. So why is Mayor Lutfur Rahman not sticking with his manifesto commitment to freeze Council tax when he can now afford to do so? One is that he also plans big increases in spending of £50 million a year e.g. a Bengali Communications and Engagement team & General Engagement Officer costing £0.5 million a year. Community language aka mother tongue £0.8 million, Leisure services we used to get for free will now cost £2.5 million a year. More later on the big increases which almost no other local authority can afford to do e.g. pay for all secondary school pupils to get free school meals £3.7 million But the Mayor is also puting £20 million a year into a risk reserve i.e. into a bank account, which may mean 1. He does not want to admit publicly that Labour nationally have given him so much extra money and that they then claim the credit for the Council Tax freeze 2. He thinks he will go over budget (as he has done recently) and needs a financial reserve 3. He is saving this money to spend later before the next election Or some combination of all 3 A reminder because we have very few old people and below average number of children we have lower costs then other local authorities plus lots of high-rise apartments full of 20 to 40 years olds who don’t use many Council services so the Council is in a much better financial position then others + income from Canary Wharf Cllr Marc Francis has spotted the same issue so it will be interesting to see whether Aspire respond on this point Because with the massive increase in government funding the Mayor could have afforded to reduce the Council tax increase to less then 5% putting less pressure on your own finances but chose not to do so Financially he is having his cake and eating it Government funding backup gov.uk/government/collection…