How much council tax will go up in the Rochdale borough for each household

People in the borough of Rochdale will pay more in council tax from April, as a 4.99 percent hike in the household precept has been officially voted through at the latest full council meeting.

It means the average Band A household bill will rise by £65 per year and Band D household’s bill will rise by almost £100 per year.

The total figure residents pay will be higher still, with increases to Greater Manchester precepts for police and fire services yet to be confirmed.

The total resources available to the council to find their services is estimated to be £331.6m, according to budget papers. A large proportion of this cash (£123.2m) is generated through council tax, with the rest covered by business rates and government grants.

Council leader Neil Emmott explained that adult social care and children’s services are the biggest cost to the council. Those gathered in Number One Riverside, council HQ, were told how inflation and a rise in demand for social care in an aging population has had a severe impact on the budget in recent years.

The same goes for children’s services, where Rochdale Council are seeing added costs for Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) transport, placements in specialist schools as well as more staffing in children’s services.

The meeting was told that £13.7m and £3.7m would be added to the adult social care and children’s services budgets respectively. 

 

Council Tax breakdown

Council tax is made up of four elements. The majority is made up of the general element, set by the local authority. The remaining elements are the ring-fenced adult social care element, which is also set by the local authority, the policing precept and the mayoral general precept. The latter two are both set by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority.

The mayoral general precept partly funds the fire service and other Greater Manchester-level purposes like rough sleeping support and free bus passes for young people, whilst the policing precept is the amount you contribute to local policing.

 

The Tory amendment to the plan, tabled by the leader Stephen Anstee, would have seen less money going into council reserves and giving a relief to tax payers – who he claimed were already being hammered by taxes nationally. That was voted down by the majority Labour group.

Councillor Emmott told of how they had listened to the public over budget cuts plans. These savings were proposed in order to fill the £5.5m budget gap.

Cuts to bowling green maintenance and axing services at Middleton crematorium had been included in the money saving plans – but those ideas have been scrapped following public uproar.

The proposal to charge £30 for replacement bins in the borough will still go ahead though. The replacement bins would only incur the £30 charge if that property has already received the same type of bin within the past five years.

 

 

This is how much residents in each band will pay for the household precept element of the council tax bill in 2025/26:

• Band A: £1,372.56 (+£65.23)
• Band B: £1,601.32 (+£76.11)
• Band C: £1,830.08 (+£86.98)
• Band D: £2,058.84 (+£97.85)
• Band E: £2,516.36 (+£119.59)
• Band F: £2,973.88 (+£141.34)
• Band G: £3,431.40 (+£163.08)
• Band H: £4,117.68 (+£195.70)

George Lythgoe, Local Democracy Reporter