You might have seen the recent Wandsworth Council press release which claimed that Wandsworth Council was “freezing” Council tax this coming year. However, you only had to read a few paragraphs into the same press release to discover that the Council is in fact increasing bills by 2% as part of its social care levy. This led to the independent OnLondon online newspaper observing in its headline that “Wandsworth Council to increase council tax while claiming it will freeze it.”
As well as being a thoroughly misleading claim, the decision to increase Council Tax is a straightforward broken promise. At the local elections in May, Wandsworth Labour promised to cut Council Tax if they won the election – and certainly not to increase it. As OnLondon describes it (pulling no punches):
"During the run up to last May’s council elections [Simon] Hogg [Leader of Wandsworth Council] and Labour, before taking control of the council from the Conservatives, made vague, misleading and contradictory pledges about council tax, including that a Labour-run council would “cut your council tax this year” and “cut your council tax next year” along with a looser promise to retain “the same low council tax” charged by the Conservatives. The Wandsworth Labour election manifesto is no longer available online."
Tax rises always disproportionately hit those with the least the most. As well as increasing Council Tax, the Council is also raising Council house rents by 7% (the legal maximum) and day care fees for older and vulnerable residents by 7%. What makes these decisions all the more disappointing is that Labour inherited some £200m in Council reserves in May 2022 from the outgoing Conservative Council Administration – probably the healthiest Council financial position in the country. This means that Wandsworth Council simply doesn’t need to raise additional money from hard pressed residents at this time.
And Council Tax bills will rise further still. The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan (a former Wandsworth Labour councillor), is also set to raise his share of the Council tax bill by 9.7%. A Conservative amendment at the Greater London Assembly to freeze his portion of Council Tax instead was voted down last week by Labour Assembly Members.
It is a far cry from decisions taken a year ago by the previous Conservative Administration. Last year, Wandsworth Council was the only London Council to actually cut Council Tax, and we also froze Council house rents and heating and hot water charges. We could do this because we managed money well when times were good, so we could help those with the least during tough times. We’re disappointed that the new Council have departed from this approach.
