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Families face 'stealth charges' of £1,000 a year ... ON TOP OF council tax, watchdog says
Last updated at 16:22pm on 22.01.08
Fees and charges have been allowed to soar, rising to £10.8billion a year
Families are facing "stealth charges" of more than £1,000 a year from councils.
A Whitehall watchdog has found that increased charges for services ranging from rat-catching to school buses allow some town halls to take more money in fees than they do from council tax.
Fees and charges have risen to £10.8billion a year. When Labour came to power in 1997, they raised only £5.5billion.
They have gone up nearly as fast as council tax, which amounted to £22.4billion last year, a report showed.
Although protest movements and voter anger over council tax rises have led to caps on bills, fees and charges have been allowed to soar.
Families face the greatest burden, indicated the report from the Audit Commission, which is responsible for checking town-hall spending. It looked at four typical councils and found that charges cost the average household between £1,093 and £1,479 a year.
One council in the West that charged £1,479 in fees asked £1,271 for its Band D council tax bill, the report said.
The Commission also examined one council in the North. A family of two adults and two children in the area, with an after-tax income of £39,000, would pay £1,367 in Band D council tax but £1,190 in charges for council services.
Meanwhile, a single parent and two children, with £21,000 after tax and benefits, would pay £1,025 in Band D council tax but £1,073 in fees for council services.
What is more, town halls continue to look for new ways to impose fees. In the past two years, six out of ten have started to charge for services that were once free, the Commission said.
For instance, planners have begun to charge for advice on whether home improvements will need planning permission.
The Audit Commission said that fees now amount to £210 for everyone in England.
Town halls are using the money to pad out council tax receipts or to maintain services they would otherwise cut, the report added.
One in three new charges is to "manage demand" - in other words, to cut numbers driving, throwing out garden waste, or using public transport.
Councils are "failing to demonstrate clearly to the public what additional benefits are delivered by new or increased charges," the report said, adding that the public are "receptive" to increased charging if they know what they are paying for.
Eric Pickles, Tory local government spokesman, said: "We already knew that council tax bills have doubled under Gordon Brown.
"Now it is clear that Labour's fiddled funding and new burdens imposed from above have forced stealth charges to double as well. Families have been hit the hardest by these higher costs."
The Local Government Association, an umbrella body for town halls, warned that even higher fees and charges are on the way.
Chairman Sir Simon Milton said: "The impact of a flawed council tax system, combined with increasing pressures for services, means that local councils have to make tough choices between spending cuts, council tax rises and charging fees.
"In certain parts of the country, the money councils will receive next year from central government will make it the worst settlement for a decade."
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•Councils could be forced to give residents £50 cashback if they fail to sweep the streets or repair street lights, Communities Secretary Hazel Blears said yesterday.
The compensation would be paid out under community contracts struck between local residents and their town hall.
These contracts could pressure councils to keep pledges to tackle drug dealing and empty the bins on time, she said.
They would also allow residents to offer to do jobs for the council in return for favours, such as cutting grass verges in exchange for more regular rubbish collections.
•Pay-as-you-throw rubbish taxes could cost families £10 a month, ministers acknowledged.
The Government had suggested the bill would be no more than £30 a year.
But yesterday, officials from the Department of Food and Rural Affairs conceded that the £100-a-year level is likely to be broken.
Reader views (1)
Here's a sample of the latest views published.
What a good idea to give extra rubbish collections to residents who are civic minded and cut the grass verge in front of their homes.
How about issuing penalties for councils/housing associations that fail to tackle anti social behaviour in council houses and flats?
One block of flats in Lewisham managed by the borough has an entry phone system out of order for two years that has been broken by vandals that hang around 49-71 Dacre Park SE13. The decent residents in the block had to put up with one well known to the council anti social family, who continuously threw their rubbish around the block and encouraged local youths to hang around the block-hence the broken door security system.
The decent residents in this block have had to put up with graffiti and communal lights out in this block for at least two years.
They could do a much better job than the council in maintenance because they live in the block and are aware of the problems.
Let the council housing management and the borough's cabinet member for housing live on these estates for a week, they would soon be issuing refunds to tenants and leaseholders for issuing charges under false pretences!
- Carl Kisicki, Lewisham
