THE COUNCIL’S cabinet have recommended that council tax has be frozen for 2014/15.
Council Leader, Cllr John Kent, told the meeting: “We have difficult decisions to make here tonight.
“We agreed the basis of the council’s budget for next year 12 months ago, back in February last year.
“We have to make cuts, there’s no escaping that, but the government has now announced its grant will be the same as a one per cent council tax rise and – more importantly – that the money would be built into the base too.
“Effectively that means there’s a £400,000 difference for our budget between us asking for a two per cent rise and having a freeze.”
He said: “Because we’ve been prudent over the last four years and built up sustainable reserves, I am proposing that – in the short term – we take that £400,000 from reserves asking officers to identify those savings that will be required for 2015/16 that can be brought forward to reduce the overall call on the budget over the coming 12 months.
“Although it’s £400,000 we have to find, it’s also around £1 million the hard-pressed council tax payers of Thurrock will now not have to find.
“People are facing a cost of living crisis as their heating bills are going up, their travel bills are going up, their food bills are going up – but if this is agreed by the full council, one thing that won’t be going up this year is Thurrock’s part of the council tax.”
He said that although the police were considering increasing their “precept” part of the bill between two and three-and-a-half per cent, “we will still be able to boast: Thurrock has the lowest council tax in Essex”.
Cllr Kent said: “Previous Council Tax freeze grants, like this, have only lasted a year or two and then they fell out of the equation.
“For example, if we had not increased council tax last year, this year’s and all future budgets would have been even more difficult as the extra government money would have disappeared.
“The fact that last February this council came together and agreed a two-year budget means there is little to say this time, the major savings items are already agreed.”
Pressure from the Tories or just a change of heart? Cllr Kent you are becoming very predictable.
Council tax bills in March, elections in May. He wants to make sure his own personal cash register is still ringing away in June.
Sorry, but I don’t agree with this decision.
I hate the boast about the lowest council tax in Essex, when ever the council is asked for community funding the reply is “There’s no money”!
Most of the residents I’ve talked to have said that a small increase wouldn’t be missed, (especially spread over the year) but could make a lot of difference in the borough.
Ed
I feel you have got this totally wrong firstly not only Thurrock but the rest of the UK have got a need for more housing and if demand outstrips supply. Developers can keep bumping up the price for the houses they are selling, the only way to maintain a fair price for housing is to build more and make the market amongst developers more competitive, and if councils strive for better 106 agreements and community gains which they can do all the better.
We now have children living with their parents at the age of 25+ unable to get a foot on the housing ladder and presumably if they are living with their parents this might indicates they are saving up for a mortgage or they cannot afford to rent property themselves, burdening their parents further.
This situation made worse by the hated bedroom tax where it has been proved council tenants wishing to downgrade to smaller accommodation to accommodate this ridiculous tax, that the council do not have such accommodation in place
But back to the story Ed Thurrock Council has now got to review its growth strategy following recent changes in government planning policy, because of its failure to maintain house building in Thurrock and how can building 88 new houses in 2009 /2010 be considered even trying, surely somebody must have seen the writing on the wall .
You now have every time a planning application comes up before the committee certain members insisting that these applications should only be on Brownfield sites or post-industrial, the only trouble with that scenario is that short sighted Council officers of the past who allowed these sites to be vacated without the necessary cleanup operation put in place and when potential developers have certificated inspection of the sites it then becomes apparent, that what some members of the planning committee are saying is rubbish, yes there is plenty of Brownfield sites but not fit in their present condition for human habitation without vast amounts of money to make them so which would be coasted into the eventual development cost, what a nice scenario not only get the developers to build on the site but get them to remove the problem of contamination which is the Council’s problem. Thus making any potential site especially post-industrial non-viable to developers why doesn’t Thurrock list all Brownfield sites that have no concerns about contamination to building companies in a bid to start to get its building programme on track
Lastly we now have Eric pickles calling in a development of 501 houses in Thurrock edged on by Jackie Doyle Price, going against his own policies, in getting house building going in the UK, I listened to him speak on a recent radio program where he said the companies that make brick for the building industry, had enjoyed for the first time in many years keeping their furnaces going over the Christmas period and that since 1973 targets in house building had lapsed, and he was committed to reversing this trend , firstly I would like to say to Eric thank you from everybody especially those up to their waist in water, all the recent flooding which in a lot of cases could have been minimised if the proper maintenance of the rivers was organised better and you would have got to grips with this problem two months earlier.
And before we start blaming this on climate change just look across the water to Holland of which is mostly below sea level and have managed successfully for centuries in a sensible and sustainable manner, perhaps Eric you should go to Holland and learn how to put your finger in a dike
In my opinion the trouble at local level and at national level is that there is no accountability, years ago it would have been decided exactly where the blame needed to be, the person it fell upon resigned, nowadays if we even get near to that person to blame” he or she goes quietly and is rewarded with a huge golden handshake or pension or both.