Proposed council tax rise will help protect after-school clubs and holiday childcare
Islington Council is proposing to increase council tax by 2.99% from April in order to protect after-school clubs and holiday childcare and to develop a new project to address ‘holiday hunger’ in the face of ongoing government cuts to the council’s budget.
The council is also proposing to apply the government’s social care precept of 3% on council tax to help pay for adult social care in Islington, meaning there will be a total increase in council tax of 5.99%.
The council currently subsidises over 700 after-school places for children over the age of 5, along with nearly 200 holiday childcare places. Due to severe financial pressures, childcare providers have been told that funding for these places would end in August of this year.
By increasing council tax by 2.99%, the council can continue to subsidise after-school clubs and holiday childcare for over 5s beyond this summer on an ongoing basis. It will also fund childcare providers to serve nutritious meals as part of their holiday childcare offer, to help address the fact that many of the borough’s poorest children do not get a decent meal during school holidays.
Cllr Andy Hull, executive member for finance and performance, said: “We don’t want to raise council tax, but at a time of unprecedented and relentless central government cuts to council budgets we have little choice if we wish to protect vital services on which local people rely”.
“We are proposing to ask people to pay a bit more to help keep important services for children and families going”.
Council tax for 2018/19 will be set at the Budget Council meeting on February 22.
By 2020, national government will have cut its core funding to Islington Council by 70% in a decade.
Notes to editors
Notes to Editor:
Each one per cent rise in Council Tax means roughly a 20p per week increase for the average (Band D) property.
Increasing council tax by 5.99% will result in an overall weekly increase of £1.24 for the average (Band D) property.
Islington currently has the 10th lowest council tax out of all 32 London boroughs and froze council tax for five consecutive years from 2010/11 to 2014/15.
On 20 December 2017 the government announced, in the Provisional Local Government Financial Settlement, that local authorities could raise council tax by an extra 1% without a referendum. Increases in council tax had previously been capped at 1.99% without the need for a referendum.
The council has chosen to maintain a substantial Council Tax Support Scheme, which means that less well-off residents only have to pay 8.5% of their full council tax bill.
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