Council Tax

(asked on 20th April 2021) - View Source

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment his Department has made of the change in the level of the council tax base in 2020-21; and what assessment he has made of the effect of that change on the Government's estimate in the Local Government Financial Settlement for 2021-22.


Answered by
Luke Hall Portrait
Luke Hall
This question was answered on 26th April 2021

For the purposes of estimating Core Spending Power in presenting the annual Local Government Finance Settlement, each local authority’s average annual tax setting base over the previous five years is used to project its tax base for the coming financial year. No adjustments were made to this methodology in the 2021-22 settlement to account for the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. This is because the Government is providing additional support to local authorities through the £670 million Local Council Tax Support grant, in recognition of the impact of anticipated increased local council tax support caseloads.

The Government also recognises that council tax yields may have been reduced during 2020-21 as a result of COVID-19. This is why we are compensating councils for 75% of irrecoverable council tax losses from 2020-21 through the tax income guarantee.

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