Latest news with #LynneJones
BBC News
22-05-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Another year of above average council tax rises on the cards?
Just weeks after receiving new higher council tax bills for this year, people in Windsor and Maidenhead are being warned to expect more of the same in in the Royal Borough went up by just under 9% last month. Councillors are already making it clear the chances of limiting council tax rises to the government's traditional cap of 5% are slim to Borough says it's £30 million short of the money it needs every year to run all the services it has to stopping short of promising that it won't cut any services to make up for the shortfall, the local authority is beginning to draw up plans on how it can bring more money into the council's coffers. The Royal Borough's deputy leader Lynne Jones says its also looking at how much more money it can save by making its back office more efficient and says: 'I really can't see any opportunities for cuts to services', adding that 'there is no cutting to be done, it' all been done already'.The council is already in talks with the government over the problems it says it expects to face next year and will put in an official request for extra support within the next few days. It's also trying to get an early message out to tax payers. Tony Travers is a professor in public policy at the London School of Economics and he says: 'The bills for this current year only went out last month and here we are in mid to late May discussing 2026 to 2027."It sounds to me that the council knows it's going to be a challenging year and are getting the electorate ready for the need to apply to the government, either for an above average -so well over 5% I presume- council tax rise, or some sort of other exceptional support they will be lobbying central government for". The borough says that while it hopes to avoid cuts to front line services in 2026 it is looking at how it can deliver nearly £6 million of savings over the coming year. The fine print of how it expects to achieve this will be presented to council leaders and bosses in September. You can follow BBC Berkshire on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram.
BBC News
07-03-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Windsor and Maidenhead council tax needed to rise 'significantly'
A councillor has said council tax needed to rise "significantly" because services were already cut "to the bone".Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead Council voted to raise council tax by 8.99%, after receiving government permission to prevent it going council was one of only six cash-strapped authorities that were allowed to introduce a higher council tax council leader Lynne Jones said: "We are at rock bottom, staff have been cut and we as an organisation are struggling to provide our statutory services." Ms Jones said between 2010 and 2016 reductions year on year to council tax had left the council with a gap in income yearly of £30m. She said: "That is huge, that's a huge amount of money."Over the years the council has tried to live within that means and has run up a huge debt of £230m."We've got the lowest council tax in most of the rest of the other councils." Paul Berry, from Maidenhead, said: "I think the Conservatives have kept it down for a long period probably for political reasons rather than practical reasons so we are behind where we should be."Resident Jacinta said she did not understand how the council has managed to spend so much money."Surely, there should have been a limit or someone telling them stop spending," she Thomas, a florist, said: "With more and more empty shops in Maidenhead what measures are they going to put in place to help us survive." Graham Charles said he wanted to know where all the money had gone. "I'm an old age pensioner, like every old age pensioner we are struggling to pay things, everyday bills that we've got to pay," he said. Tony Travers, a local government expert at the London School of Economics, said what was happening in the borough was quite said: "There's a broader pattern in more councils now coming forward asking for exceptional treatment."Over the last 10 or more years their finances have got to the point were they feel they can't provide a full range of services without either putting up the council tax by more than the 4.99%, that the government caps them at, or selling off assets." You can follow BBC Berkshire on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram.
