Plans to increase council tax in Nottingham that would see households paying at least £65 a year extra have taken a major step forward. Nottingham City Council first revealed last December that it was planning to increase council tax by 4.99%, the maximum amount allowed without holding a referendum.
The move will mean an extra £65.04 for people living in Band A properties, which make up the majority of Nottingham city households. That figure rises to £195.14 for the top Band H properties, making up just 0.1% of Nottingham households.
The council tax plans were part of a broader range of proposals released by the authority to plug a financial gap of around £30million. Other proposals included the mothballing of two floors at Loxley House and the removal of the wheelchair hire service from the Victoria Centre.
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These budget plans have now been approved by a meeting of Nottingham City Council's executive board. Speaking at the meeting on Tuesday (February 21), Councillor Adele Williams, deputy leader of Nottingham City Council, said: "We know that the council tax rise will be extremely unwelcome for people who are facing the increased costs in their own lives.
"But we are amongst the lowest charging lowest local authorities in terms of the average council tax paid." Cllr Williams said that of 309 local authorities last year, Nottingham came 45th in terms of the amount of council tax it charged.
Nottingham City Council's leader, Cllr David Mellen, spoke more broadly on the budget at Tuesday's meeting by saying: "It is not a budget full of joy, it is not full of things that we used to have in council budgets called developments where we were able to put more investment into things. We are not able to do that in many areas because of our restrictions - we are looking at making savings, and increasing income in some areas, to make our budget balanced."
All of the city council's budget plans were subject to a public consultation which has now closed, with the authority saying the council tax plans provoked the highest amount of negative comments from the public. All budget plans will now have to be approved by a meeting of the full council on March 6, before they come into effect from April.
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