PEOPLE ON BENEFITS, LANDLORDS AND THOSE WITH SECOND HOMES TO BE HIT BY CHANGES TO COUNCIL TAX

FIRST PUBLISHED BY: WATFORD OBSERVER 

RESIDENTS IN WATFORD COULD BE HIT WITH SHARP RISES IN THEIR COUNCIL TAX BILLS 

The council looks to squeeze an extra £800,000 from the town's taxpayers. Council Tax benefit recipients in Watford who have large homes, adult children living with them or savings of more than £8,000 - as well as landlords with empty properties and people with second homes - could all be hit.

The move comes as the Government is set to abolish the current system of Council Tax benefits as soon as possible. As a result, local councils will have the chance to draw up their own Council Tax schemes, but have to factor in a cut in their grant of more than 11 per cent in Government funding.

In Watford, this means an extra £794,000 will need to be found from the taxpayer, or from the council's already squeezed finances. At a meeting of the Watford Borough Council budget committee, councillors complained the scheme could see them reaping the political fallout of the unpopular measures. Asif Khan, a Labour councillor for Leggatts, said: "I find it outrageous that central government is dumping this on local government. When we go door knocking all political parties will get blamed for it and it is not us, it is Mr Pickles.

Steve Rackett, the leader of the Green Party, added the localised tax scheme was central government getting local councils to "do its dirty work". In a report to the committee, financial officers at Watford laid out some of the options being considered to squeeze more cash out of the town’s taxpayers. One option is to reduce to £8,000 the amount of savings a resident can have before failing to qualify for Council Tax benefit. The figure is currently £16,000. This change would raise around an extra £30,000 a year for the borough. Council Tax support could also be cut to residents living in more expensive homes in Band D or Band E of the Council Tax bracket.

Officers claim this would encourage people receiving Council Tax benefits to move to cheaper accommodation and could save the council up to £198,000 a year. Parents with non-dependent adult children living at home could also be stung by the cuts, with plans to increase the deduction from Council Tax benefit they get for every working adult child living at home. Another plan is to reduce the amount of benefits for those who have other incomes, which could add £74,000 a year to council coffers. However financial officers warned this measure could make finding work for unemployed people on benefits a less attractive prospect.

Council officers said there could be certain exemptions built into the cuts which would soften the blow for pensioners, parents with children under five and disabled people. As well as reducing benefits, councils are also being allowed to cut tax discounts and exemption periods for unoccupied properties.

Among the properties that could lose some or all of their discounts are ones undergoing major repairs and those that are empty and unfurnished. People with second homes could also lose their 50 per cent Council Tax discount. There are also proposals being considered for an additional levy on homes which are left empty for two years. The recommendations are currently being looked at by councils across Hertfordshire who are planning to possibly co-ordinate their localised tax schemes.

The budget committee voted for Watford’s financial officers in the cross-county talks to say they are more in favour of the measures which target empty properties than those on benefits. The borough council will need to consult the public on its localised tax plan before implementing it. Councillors were told that if they did not make changes to recoup their losses from the Government’s Council Tax amendments, then the money lost would have to be found from the borough's budget.

READ WHAT: ERIC PICKLES ‘SECRETARY OF STATE’ SAYS ABOUT OVER-CHARGED COUNCIL TAX.


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