Q. Just why is Newham’s Council Tax Going Up Every Year? A. It’s All the Fault of Robin Wales
Former councillor, Andrew Baikie enquired as to why it was that Newham council tax payers have suffered a 20% hike in council tax payments over the last four years, (with the implication that the same will happen over the next four years.
In short, the reason that the current regime is hiking taxes is because Wales didn’t.
We know that it doesn’t make sense, but bear with us.
(The Graph come from the site of the estate agents Kinleigh, Folkard and Hayward)
In the reply to Baikie, which comes under the name of Cllr McLean, she refers to the “flawed decision” not to increase council tax during the period of the Wales administration.
The “flawed decision” was to freeze the level of council tax which the Wales administration did for 10 years. It kinda suggests hypocrisy for Fiaz and McLean to complain about low council taxes, when Fiaz to trumpeted the fact that Newham had the lowest Band D council tax in East London on her leaflets during the 2022 election campaign.
Clearly consistency does not bother Cllr McLean because she repeatedly voted in favour of the “flawed” decision, (or at least she did when she could be bothered to attend) in
2011, and
2012, and
2013, and
2014, and
2015, and
2016, and
2017, and
2018.
What’s more, the then Cllr Fiaz also voted in favour of freezing the council tax between her election in 2014 and 2018. But, as we have noted, inconsistency doesn’t really bother the current Labour administration. Nor does hypocrisy. But everything is ok now as Cllr McLean is “getting cracking” to make everything right.
We include the question and response below.
Question 5, from Andrew Baikie to Councillor Charlene Mclean (Cabinet Member for Resident Engagement and Resident Experience)
“After increasing Council Tax by c.a. 20 % in the last four years, when will the Current LB Newham Administration "get cracking" and "deliver" the £150 Government funded Council Tax Rebate for properties in Bands A-D”
Published Response
The Council is championing the impact on Newham resident caused by the Cost of Living crisis facing everyone and all local authorities as inflation rises to historic levels not seen since the 1970s. It also regrets that flawed decisions by the Council prior to 2018 to freeze Council Tax for 10 years against the backdrop of austerity has caused significant challenges as the administration works hard to ensure there is sufficient money to spend on vital frontline services to help local residents, young and old as well as hard working families – and has been cracking on this agenda since 2018.
The Council is committed to continuing to support our residents through these difficult times and is alert to the criticism the government has faced from parliamentarians since it announced the Council Tax rebate scheme. Specifically, the Levelling Up Select Committee Chair has criticised it for its “complexity” and the fact that successive pieces of government guidance unfortunately “beg additional questions” in terms of how councils have been expected to implement the rebate.
Consequently, the process surrounding the Council Tax Rebate has been complicated for many local authorities, but Newham Council has identified through its diligent and required data analysis, 107,312 households in Band A – D who are potentially eligible (subject to required eligibility checks). Of these:
49,658 households are paying by Direct Debit;
Leaving 57,654 households needing to apply by providing the Council their bank details in a secure way or accepting a £150 credit to their council tax account.
About 9 out of 10 households in Newham will benefit, including around 95 percent of rented properties. However, second homes or empty properties will not benefit.
Focus has been on getting payments processed to the 49,658 potentially eligible households paying their Council Tax via Direct Debit.
The Council is required to verify that the name on the bank account for the direct debit matches that of a ‘liable person’ in the household and 7682 accounts have failed this test. This needs to match exactly which is why we are working through each one.
This could be where someone such as a relative is paying on behalf of the liable person or it may indicate a landlord paying council tax who would not be entitled to a payment.
Additionally, some Direct Debit households:
Have a ‘payee’ who resides outside the borough so extra checks regarding eligibility need to be done – and this applies to some 750 households.
Have been identified where direct debit payees are paying for more than one property – up to 17 properties – and as landlords are ineligible for the rebate, these require robust checking.
Have provided bank accounts where ‘bounce back’ has occurred – for example, one case was identified through the testing phase where the Direct Debit was set up in April 2022 and then subsequently cancelled.
As of the 8th June 2022, the first tranche of payments via BACS have been sent to 39,284 households who have received their rebate payment, equating to some £5.9 million being paid out in total as of this date.
A further 462 payments are in the process of being made and will be in bank accounts week commencing 20th June 2022.
We are currently establishing the process for the 57,654 non-Direct Debit paying households. A secure portal for residents to provide their bank account details (or elect to have the £150 set against their council tax liability) has been established on our council tax system. We envisage issuing letters to residents from 13.6.2022. These letters will include a secure key that people can use to access the portal. They will be sent in batches given the numbers involved.
Once the resident safely enters their bank details with the secure key, our system will run a daily report with these bank details, which will go to the Governments Validation Service for checking. These responses will then be loaded back into our council tax system and the payments process will start.
We will ensure all eligible households are identified and payments made (either to bank or as a credit to council tax account) by 30th September 2022.
We are currently establishing the process for the 57,657 non-Direct Debit paying eligible households.
The secure portal for residents to provide their bank account details or elect to have the £150 set against their council tax liability has been established.
Letters to these eligible households have started since week beginning Monday 13th June 2022 in batches of 10,000 per week to systematically and correctly manage the scale of non-Direct Debit paying households.
These are also being sent in account order rather than postcode order to ensure an equitable spread of payments across the borough, with prioritisation of those households receiving Council Tax Reduction who will receive their letters first.
Households who provide the bank details of the liable person via this secure portal will receive an automated payment post verification of their details.
If they do not apply within 6 weeks of the letter, the Council will credit their Council Tax account with the £150 to ensure we secure the benefit of the rebate for the household.
You can read more about how the Council is getting cracking via this link: https://www.newham.gov.uk/downloads/file/4727/all-members-briefing-council-tax-rebate-final-170622