4% Council Tax shocker

Council Tax in the Borough of Rochdale is set to rise by close to 4 per cent, despite inflation at virtually zero per cent, thousands of redundancies locally and pay freezes and pay cuts.

The Lib Dem controlled Council already planned to raise Council Tax by an inflation busting 3.4 per cent but Rochdale Online understands that as part of a three year agreement with Greater Manchester Police Authority, the Police ‘Precept’ (that is, the police part of your council tax) is to rise by a massive 7.5 per cent.

The Fire Service precept was budgetted for at 3.5% by the Council but the Fire Service has announced their precept will be 2.5%.

A spokesman for the Council said: “7.5% GMPA precept is a provisional figure – no decision on it will be made until GMPA meet on 19 February. There is no ‘done deal’ – it is up to members of the GMPA to make the decision on the Greater Manchester wide precept for the police. The 7.5% figure comes from the final year of their 3-year projections."

However, it is understood that the 7.5% is indeed a “done deal” and, subject to approval at the Budget Fixing Council on 24 February, this will mean a rise in Council Tax in the Borough of 3.93%.