Public views are to be sought on a proposed reduction in council tax support for households across Liverpool in a bid to raise millions of pounds for its cash-strapped council.
Last week, the local authority published a raft of measures it was putting on table as it looks to fill a £73m gap in its books ahead of the new financial year. Among them are reductions in its welfare services, culture budget and potential job losses.
A comprehensive list of savings measures has been compiled by seven directorates across the city council, including a potential reduction in the support for adults of working age paying their council tax. Since 2013, Liverpool Council has held the responsibility for providing assistance to households for council tax payments.
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Currently, residents can claim up to 91.5% of their rates in Liverpool. A consultation is to be launched by the local authority to reduce this rate to 80%, in line with other councils in the Liverpool City Region, and raise around £3m.
Should the council’s cabinet agree when it meets to discuss budget proposals on Thursday, an online questionnaire would be launched on its website immediately, with the results expected to be discussed and ratified in January. Currently, Liverpool has the highest rate of any of the areas in the city region for council tax support and has retained the same level for the past nine years.
The report to cabinet said: “By reducing the level of Council Tax Support the Council would raise the level of collectible council tax. For example, it is estimated that (based on current levels of council tax charged) reducing the maximum support would raise £7M in additional collectible council tax annually.
“Liverpool Council’s share of this would be £5.9M. All of this additional council tax would be collected from low income households, and as a consequence the collection rate amongst this group can be expected to be lower than the average collection rate.
“This is estimated at around 50%, resulting in net income of circa £3M.” There are currently around 65,000 households that receive support with their council tax, but pension age customers are protected from reductions by law.
As a result, the total number of households that would be affected by this proposal is around 43,000. According to Liverpool Council’s own analysis, based on current levels of council tax a typical customer living in a Band A property on the maximum level of existing support would have a rate increase from £124 annually to £292.
The cost of the Council Tax Support scheme for 2022/2023 was approximately £68m.
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