Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the impact of extending the council tax referendum provisions introduced by the Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014 to include levying bodies such as Internal Drainage Boards on (1) the ability of local authorities to raise revenue through council tax or the delivery of their statutory functions, and (2) the ability of Internal Drainage Boards to deliver flood defence and land drainage activities.

The referendum threshold is not a cap - councils can set any council tax increase they like provided they obtain the consent of their local electorate in a referendum. Including levying bodies in the council tax referendum legislation increases the transparency and accountability of public bodies for their tax-raising and spending decisions. Local authorities and their levying bodies had shown that they can work together to cut costs and improve services, and this measure placed all local authorities on a common footing when setting council tax.