Keith Bibby wrote:The council tax is about to go up to fund social care.
Perhaps this would be better phrased as 'the council tax, which funds social care, is about to go up'?
There is no guarantee that the increase will be spent on 'social care' any more than money saved from the EU will be spent on the NHS! We do not have hypothecated taxes in the UK.
For a background briefing on how Local Government finance works here's a guide for those who do not understand quite as much as they think:-
https://www.eastsussex.gov.uk/yourcouncil/finance/guide
And here's the budget DDC are playing with 16/17
http://moderngov.dover.gov.uk/documents/s16133/Budget%20Appendix%20and%20Appendices%20-%20Updated.pdf
You might note (para 36) that your Council Tax is 13% less than Canterbury, 25% less than Thanet and a whopping 35% less than Shepway!
You might also note that £1.899m in 2016/17 of the £14m budget is made up of the 'New Homes Bonus' or 'CatNip for Councils' as I call it. Personally I'd prefer to pay a 10% increase in my Council Tax and stop this madness of despoiling the countryside with breeding boxes for London overspill but there you go.
There seems to be all party agreement on turning the Garden of England into an urban sprawl as long as we can 'enjoy' low Council Tax.
As I've said before if I'd wanted to move to sodding Basingstoke I'd have gone years ago!
Thank goodness I'm not in charge!
(Yet!
)