Residents are set to see their bills increase from April as every borough in Greater Manchester prepares to agree a council tax hike.
People in the UK are currently facing the prospect of paying out even more every month as the cost of living crisis is poised to deepen.
From the end of March the public can expect steep increases in outgoings as the lifting of the energy cap means gas and electricity bills will substantially rise.
Increasing inflation and national insurance contributions, along with water bills creeping up are all going to put the squeeze on residents.
And the spiralling cost of living will increase further as council tax is also due to go up from April 1.
Why is council tax increasing?
Local authorities across the country fund services, such as bin collections, street cleaning and children’s social care from their revenue budgets.
It is the government that sets out the maximum amount that town halls can raise council tax by, along with setting out a ringfenced amount that must be used to pay for adult social care.
Bosses say that under the current funding situation for local authorities by government, ‘it is expected that council tax is increased to the maximum’.
If a council opts not to increase to the maximum level of tax it can collect, it has to pay the costs of services another way.
This can be through using its reserves, but town halls are reluctant to tap into these except as a last resort as they are a finite amount of money that once used up will not be replaced.
However many councils in the region are already having to use reserves to balance their budgets for 2022/23, even with the rise in council tax.
Alongside increasing tax, authorities are planning to make further cuts and savings in order to present balanced budgets.
The majority of people living in the region will see their bills rise by around three per cent from April.
In Bolton , chiefs can carry over an extra 0.5pc allocation towards adult social care from last year.
What this means is that they are lifting council tax by the maximum of 1.99pc, and the adult social care element by 1.13pc.
This adds up to an overall 3.12pc rise – which works out as a £32.73 hike for residents living in Band A property, which make up 40pc of council tax payers in the borough.
For Band D residents there will be a £49.10 increase – but the overall bill will be higher once Mayoral precepts are added on top.
Residents in Bury will see their bill rise by 2.94pc in total – split between a 1.94pc council tax rise and a one per cent allocation to adult social care.
The council is also planning more than £5.9m of cuts and ‘efficiency savings’ in order to balance the books over the next financial year.
Manchester, Trafford , Rochdale, Tameside, Salford and Wigan residents are likely to see their bills increased by nearly three per cent from next year.
All of these town halls are expected to agree to raise the council tax element by 1.99pc, with the remaining one per cent being used to pay for adult social care.
Stockport council tax is set to increase by 3.5pc under new budget proposals for the coming financial year.
It means an average Band D household faces paying out an extra £61.25 over the course of the 12 months – which works out as just over £5 per month.
The council tax rise is made up of a one per cent increase in the general levy and a 2.5pc uplift in the adult social care precept, including 1.5pc which was deferred from last year.
Deputy leader Councillor Tom McGee said it had been a ‘very hard decision’ – but the government expected councils to take full advantage of their local tax raising powers.
“They say this in all the papers they sent out, that we maximise the adult social care precept. They have assumed we will take all of it,” he told the Local Democracy Reporting Service.
“They have already taken off money from our grants, if we don’t take the 2.5pc we are double hit.
“Equally they assume we will take two per cent on council tax to pay for things like highways, waste collection and looked after children.”
Oldham is raising its council tax bill by 3.99pc, with the maximum rise of council tax of 1.99pc to pay for its services and a two per cent increase for adult social care.
This will see a Band A property bill increase to £1,194.45, and Band D rise to £1,791.68 – before Mayoral or parish precepts are added on top.
The total bill, with Mayoral precepts included will rise by at least £60 for Band A residents.
All the budgets for the next financial year – including the council tax rises – will be debated and voted on at meetings of each respective authority’s full council.
What is the Mayoral precept?
The council tax set by local authorities doesn’t include the amount that people living in the region pay towards the region’s Mayor and combined authority, fire and police.
Added to the bill is the Mayoral General Precept and the Mayoral Police and Crime Commissioner Precept.
Last week leaders approved a 7.1pc increase to the general precept which pays for fire services and for the budget to cover bus reform and homeless shelters.
Combined with an increase in the police precept part of the bill, residents living in Band D households will pay a total of £22 more a year.
Funding the police element will cost an extra £10 for Band D households, while Band A households will pay around £6.60 more in the next financial year.
The investment is aimed at improving Greater Manchester Police, including funding the ‘transformation’ of the police contact centre and speeding up response times to 999 and 101 calls.
However protesters interrupted the Mayor at a meeting of the police, fire and crime panel meeting where the hike was being approved, criticising a lack of support for the rise.
A spokesperson for the Northern Police Monitoring Project said the increase would ‘further exacerbate a cost-of-living crisis which is having a devastating impact across the city region, particularly for working class communities.’
Last Friday Andy Burnham told council leaders that he is ‘extremely conscious’ of the cost of living pressures residents face, claiming he had been ‘careful’ not to increase tax too much in recent years – however he said there was an ‘exceptional case’ for the general council tax hike now.
He said that the extra funding would allow the fire service to maintain 50 pumps across all of its stations with four to five firefighters staffing each one.
The additional revenue is also needed to fund a pay rise for firefighters which recognises they may be required to respond to a marauding terrorist attack.
Another ‘exceptional pressure’ on the budget next year will be the cost of bringing buses back under public control, Burnham told council leaders.
The council tax increase will also contribute towards an extension of the Our Pass scheme which offers free travel for young people in Greater Manchester.
A Bed Every Night, which currently houses around 600 homeless people per night, will also continue thanks to the council tax increase, Burnham explained.
The proposal to increase council tax for the general mayoral budget was unanimously approved by all 10 leaders, including Bolton’s Martyn Cox – the only Conservative councillor on the Greater Manchester Combined Authority.
