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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, for what reason she increased council tax referendum thresholds.

The government has confirmed it will maintain the previous government’s policy of a 3% core council tax principle and the 2% principle for the adult social care precept, in line with OBR forecast.

In a limited number of cases the government has set bespoke referendum principles following requests for councils. These requests have been considered on a case-by-case basis. We have not agreed to all requests and no request has been agreed to in its entirety to reduce the impact on taxpayers.

The ability to request additional increases already existed, but this government is being stricter to protect taxpayers from excessive rises. At its highest, the previous government allowed a council tax rise of 15% – this year no council will see an increase of higher than 10%, with five of the six councils seeing a lower increase.

The government has agreed to provide these flexibilities, but it remains the responsibility of individual authorities to decide the level at which they set their council tax. We have been clear to all councils that they should take whatever steps locally they consider will help to protect the most vulnerable residents from the impact of any additional increase.