On Monday, Housing Secretary Angela Rayner gave a written statement to the House of Commons following a number of requests from local authorities to raise Council tax beyond the permitted 4.99% annual increase threshold.
The statement read:
"Having carefully considered requests from councils, the government has agreed small increases for six councils. For the 2025 to 2026 Settlement, bespoke additional council tax referendum principles will apply for Windsor and Maidenhead Borough Council (+4%), Birmingham City Council (+2.5%), Bradford Council (+5%), Newham Council (+4%), Somerset Council (+2.5%) and Trafford Council (+2.5%).”
Our Member of Parliament for Windsor, Jack Rankin, had written to the Housing Secretary in December, urging her to reject the rise. Later that month, he raised it directly with the Prime Minister during Prime Minister’s Questions, accusing RBWM of “persistent weak financial control and political failure”. He also recently met with the Minister for Local Government to discuss his deep concerns.
Under the Liberal Democrats’ proposals, households would have been billed an average of £451 extra in Council tax, putting severe pressure on families in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis[4]. In comparison, Royal Borough residents will now save an average of £289 with the 9% rise.
Commenting, Jack Rankin MP said:
“Having opposed the Royal Borough's ludicrous 25% Council Tax hike at every opportunity, I am relieved to see the government has listened.
“While I know Royal Borough constituents will still feel the pain here, I am confident that our campaigning against the hike locally has resulted in a 16% reduction – a saving of nearly £300 - for the Royal Borough taxpayer.
“RBWM has been consistently clear that it ‘needed’ a Council tax rise of 25%. This has never been true. That Council officers, official papers and Council communications have been politicised to that party political end is a disgrace. The government has found those claims to be inaccurate and it puts into serious question the judgement of both the Chief Executive and Liberal Democrat Leader of the Council. They should consider their positions.
“When Angela Rayner is more low tax than you, you have a serious problem.
“If Maidenhead Town Hall still insist that they cannot make their budget work having lost of control of the council finances, they can pass a higher budget and we will campaign against them in the referendum.
“I continue to believe that the Royal Borough is broken, and neither delivers meaningful local government, nor strategic scale, and support imposed local government reorganisation.”