Proposed council tax rise 'the lowest in 12 years'

People living in parts of Lancashire will see their council tax increase by the slowest rate in more than a decade, it has been claimed.

From April, bills could rise by 3.8% in areas of the county that fall under the remit of Reform UK-led Lancashire County Council.

It is proposed that those living in a typical Band D property would pay an extra £62.83 more per year, taking their new bill to £1,716.12.

Council leader Stephen Atkinson hailed "the lowest rise in 12 years" but opposition councillors said the increase was "still going to hit working people really hard in their pockets".

Lancashire has been allocated £310m by the government over the next three years as part of its "fair funding" review.

However, the uplift assumed an increase in council tax bills of 4.99% - the maximum allowed without holding a local referendum.

Atkinson suggested not increasing bills by 4.99% would not affect the settlement.

He said: "It's obviously going to cost about £8m a year, but we are scheduled to make £65m worth of savings and efficiencies [while] still concentrating on [providing] those frontline services that people value."

He said those savings would be generated by the use of AI, "working smarter" and getting "more productivity out of the existing team, to give them more time to think and do things better".

Atkinson added: "It's about relentless focus on the residents and some of that stuff that we used to do we no longer do.

"I'll give you an example: net zero. We used to spend over £100,000 a year assessing tenders for if they were net zero compliant. That's gone."

But Opposition leader, Independent councillor Azhar Ali, said: "What the Reform administration have done is they've just raised council tax by a whopping 3.8%- that's a massive hit for the people of Lancashire.

"There's a cost-of-living crisis and people struggling and Reform have just broken their one big promise that they made which was to not increase council tax.

"I think people will be really disillusioned and angry that they were promised the earth and they delivered dust."

Budget proposals will be formally scrutinised next week.

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