The wealthy county with the highest council tax in Britain

Telegraph

a day ago

Rutland is often described as the one of the healthiest, happiest and best places to live in Britain. But it comes at a high cost.
'We live in a very special place, and I suppose we have to pay for that,' says one stoic Rutland resident.
Her council tax bills are among the highest in the country, and are due to increase further. Bills could rise by nearly £600 under Labour. It has left residents asking: 'Why are we being singled out?'
Rutland County Council charges the highest tax in the country, with the average Band D household paying £2,671 a year. The national average is nearly £400 lower.
Analysis by The Telegraph found that if Rutland continues to raise council tax by the maximum amount each year, households' average bills would increase by £576 by 2030 to £3,247.
And this looks likely. Councils that have social care responsibilities, such as county and unitary authorities, can increase tax by a maximum of 4.99pc – and Chancellor Rachel Reeves's spending review gave them the green light to keep doing so.
Nine in 10 town halls, including Rutland, opted to raise the tax in April. The Institute for Fiscal Studies has warned that the UK should brace for council tax to rise at its fastest rate in 20 years. It means half of authorities will see increases of at least £500 by 2030.
Oakham is filled with stone-coloured houses reminiscent of the Cotswolds, and is popular with tourists who arrive en masse on buses. The small county, with just 41,000 residents and its own flag and castle, also has one of the best-run councils in the country.
Pride in the county runs deep, and residents are happy to call themselves 'Rutlanders'. But underneath, there is a growing resentment towards the exorbitant council tax bills.
Patrick Brammer has lived in the county for 29 years with his wife Valerie, and doesn't see how the 'high tax can be justified'.
The 68-year-old says: 'You get your bins collected, street lights, and that's about it. We get the same services as everyone else. It's not clear how the tax is spent.'
'I've got no problem with the council themselves,' he adds. 'I don't see why we're singled out particularly for such high council tax. Just over the border in Leicestershire, you'll probably pay a few hundred pounds less.'
If you have a second home in the council, your tax bill will be much higher. Rutland County Council was one of the 204 authorities which introduced the second home premium in April.
There are currently 223 second homes in the area, paying an average of £5,230.
Tax rises 'driving away potential buyers'
If tax rises continue at this rate, a Band H second home in the county will be paying £12,986 by 2030. Meanwhile, an average second home, a Band D property, could be left on the hook for £6,494.
Henry Burgess, of James Sellicks estate agency in Oakham, says such high council tax will drive away potential buyers, which would be a 'crying shame'.
He adds: 'If council tax does continue to rise, second home owners will decide they've got better things to spend their money on. It will remove any pull to get a second home in this area, which will have a knock-on effect on high streets. Instead, families could spend a little less on council tax and have a home on the coast.
'If it does keep increasing, even ordinary buyers, who are generally bound by schools or work, may opt to buy somewhere else.'
Bobbi Cook, a 19-year-old single mother, has lived in Rutland her whole life. Pushing her pram with eight-month-old, Rowan, she points out how uneven the roads and pavements are.
She is paying £111 a month to the council, which includes the 25pc single person allowance. But she doesn't think the council spends it well.
'As a single parent, it's a lot. If, after the bills go up, you could see the roads getting better and more police on the streets, then it would make sense because it would be going to something good,' she says.
'But at the minute, that's not what's happening. And once you have a baby, everything gets more expensive. All the bills are going up. But my wage hasn't.'
Another Oakham resident, Moss, who declined to give his full name, is resigned to the imminent bill increases.
'I don't like it, but I don't have a choice,' he says. The 41-year-old says he is completely 'squeezed' by his bills, which leave him with next to no spending money each month.
Last year, the Liberal Democrat-run council revealed it was in a £46.6m deficit. A spokesman said that Rutland 'gets a particularly raw deal when it comes to government funding'. It relies on council tax for 79pc of funding, compared with the national average of 56pc.
He added: 'After making hundreds of thousands of pounds of savings in the last financial year, we were incredibly disappointed that we had to propose a further increase in council tax.
'This is not something that any councillor wants to do. It is because of the hand we're dealt, in terms of our national funding allocation.'
'Council tax has gone up a lot, and every year'
This shortfall may be widened thanks to Labour's plans to restructure local government.
The council fought, and won, for its independence as a unitary authority in 1997. But Angela Rayner's reorganisation plans mean that Rutland may be forced to merge with Leicestershire County Council.
This proposal has not proved popular among residents, however, as Leicestershire's spending is set to outstrip income by more than £100m by 2027.
Alicia Kearns, Conservative MP for Rutland and Stamford, has opposed reorganisation. She previously told The Telegraph there was a misconception that the county was full of 'wealthy retirees'.
'We've got one of the lowest social mobility scores in the country,' she said, adding that she does not believe merging will improve this.
Diana and Chris Corp concede that Rutland is a fairly wealthy area – but council tax has gone up 'a lot, and every year'. Originally from Leicester, the former teachers have lived locally for the past 12 years, and now pay the council £310 a month.
'We don't have massive crime waves and schools closing down, however, it's not really obvious where the tax is spent,' says Diana, 76.
'There is no police presence where we live, and even though it's a small market town, there is an undercurrent of petty crime which gets neglected.
'We have to pay extra to get the garden waste taken away and that goes up every year. And the roads are appalling.'
Other residents have a more generous outlook on their high bills.
Terry Kilmartin, a 72-year-old local, says her council tax is 'too much', but that 'we're better off than other places'.
Nitesh Bhundia, 44, owns a wine shop called L'Art de Vivre with his friend, Thomas Troisvallets. In an age where high streets across the country are struggling, the pair are confident in their business model, as there is the 'demand for high end shopping' in Oakham.
Bhundia has lived in the town for six years with his wife and two daughters.
'I grew up in Leicester where there was a high crime rate and it was so unsafe. Here, the parks are well-kept and the bins aren't overspilling. We live in a bit of a bubble in Rutland,' he explains.
'There is no other place like this in England.'