Next year, your council tax is expected to increase by a certain amount as determined by your council.

The government has announced that council tax will be increasing to provide more funding for police services. This means that council tax bills will see a total rise of £330 million across England and Wales in the coming year. The increase has been proposed in order to provide additional financial support to police forces.

Labour has allocated an extra £17.4 billion in funding for police services for the fiscal year 2025-26, which is a significant increase of £986.9 million from the current year. However, it has been reported that approximately one-third of this increase will be dependent on local authorities raising council tax bills.

The potential increase in council tax could result in an average of £14 being added to the annual bill for properties in Band D, depending on the decisions made by local councils. In a statement to Members of Parliament, Policing Minister Dame Diana Johnson explained that the proposed settlement aims to strike a balance between protecting taxpayers and providing necessary funding for police forces.

Dame Diana also stated that the overall funding boost will help cover various costs, such as police pay raises, increasing employer national insurance contributions, and additional recruitment. The total amount allocated to policing, including the money provided to forces and wider system funding, will be £19.5 billion, which is a £1 billion increase and represents a 3% real terms rise.

The minister also clarified that out of the additional funding of £986.9 million for police forces, £657.1 million will be an increase in government grants. This includes a £339 million increase in core grants to ensure that police forces have the necessary resources to fulfill their mission of making our streets safer. Additionally, £230.3 million will be allocated to compensate territorial forces for the costs of the change to employer national insurance contributions from 2025-26. The remaining £100 million will be used to kickstart the first phase of recruiting 13,000 additional police officers, PCSOs, and special constables for neighborhood policing roles.

Dame Diana expressed confidence that this funding will provide police services with the necessary resources to effectively tackle crime and ensure the safety of communities. Police and crime commissioners have the authority to raise the precept, which is their portion of council tax, by up to £14 without triggering a referendum. This could potentially generate an additional £329.8 million in funding for police forces compared to the previous fiscal year.

[This article has been trending online recently and has been generated with AI. Your feed is customized.]
[Generative AI is experimental.]