25% Council Tax Annual Hike

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Maidenhead and Windsor are set to increase their council tax by 25% this year whilst the big boss also gets a 25% pay rise from £150k/year to £200k/year.

Really bad news as this sets the precedence for other councils to do the same.

Where is the mediation authority that governs what a reasonable increase is? Currently you can't challenge this as if you don't pay you go to court.

Council tax in Windsor and Maidenhead could rise by 25% - BBC News

I think it’s fair enough. If you want services they have to be paid for. Housing crisis, social care, SEN education all costs a fortune. My husband earns far more than the head of the council and that’s just a financial services professional with a fraction of the responsibility.

Service costs are going up though. Costs for dealing with waste have gone up substantially. Cost of providing care to elderly and vulnerable are through the roof. Everything is more expensive. Not sure what there is left to cut. Local library, leisure pool, public toilets have all gone the way of the Dodo already as councils are now doing statutory minimum.

We live in Scotland where they have frozen the council tax for years. As a result schools cannot afford to provide a teacher for each class and roads are so pot holes cycling around is lethal. Things have gone far too far. If we want good services we need to pay for them, and I want good services.

SEN spending has been consistently higher than government funding by £200–800 million per year between 2018 and 2022, mainly because local authorities have a statutory obligation to deliver the provision set out in EHCPs.
As a result, local authorities have accumulated large deficits in their high-needs budgets, estimated to be at least £3.3 billion in total by this year. The ‘statutory override’ has kept these deficits off local authorities’ balance sheets and prevented many from having to declare bankruptcy. This short-term fix is currently due to end in March 2026. So LAs need to cover current deficit and prepare for the March 2026 date.

That article already says they need to ask for permission over 4.99% but really as said above, if they are short of cash then services need to be paid for.

The council has just had 16 years of one party in charge, a party which is known to keep bills as low as possible and to reduce services to pay for it. It’s not a surprise that a new party with a different approach is now in. If they are out of money, it has to be paid for somehow.

The band D rate is very low , sounds like the council has been cheap for years and it will still be under the average.
The CE has a 120million budget to manage and many statutory responsibilities, is 200k similar to private sector?

Its appalling. Households have budgets, I don't know where they think residents will be able to just magic this money up from. They should be able to increase council tax to fund services and prevent bankruptcy; but only if they can demonstrate systemic change and a credible plan to balance the books going forwards. It should be contingent on pay-freezes for staff earning over £60k a year for example.

I've just checked the council tax for Windsor its currently very cheap compared to my council tax up north.

Shocked here too, shocked enough to consider moving to another area! However other nearby areas are typically £3-500 a year more, so they did start low
I think its appalling to give 25% salary rise, because there's also the pension contribution on top - to a very decent pension when retired. My dad worked in public services and knew he was due a decent pension, and often said he knew he could earn far, far more elsewhere but was always aware of the good pension he would get so he'd take his luck with that. Nowadays they want the salary AND the good pension.

This is interesting, I didn't know this. So who has actually been paying it so far?

Where are you getting information about the CEO's pay from? Looking on the website, it's a pay band of £155k to £198k. So the CEO's pay would usually start at the bottom and go up incrementally each year until it reaches the top of the pay scale. There's usually an increase to the pay scales each year as well. But it's not a 25% (or 33%, from £150k to £200k) increase, unless you have other information.

www.rbwm.gov.uk/council-and-democracy/transparency/royal-borough-pay-scales/senior-leadership-pay-bands

Hi - I live in RBWM and while it's going to hurt, we desperately need it. I'm just angry that it's going to hit us in a huge chunk thanks to the previous council trying to win votes by keeping it frozen.

Precisely. The pain is coming from the fact that it's happening in one huge jump.

Yes, and so many people think this is a great thing SNP has done!

£1700 a year for Band D! I'm in Band D in Cumbria and mine is £2300 a year so it sounds like this is long overdue! Bet my Band D house cost half as much as well 🙄

Core schools funding comes from the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) which is set centrally and allocated to local authorities through the National Funding Formula (NFF). Within the DSG, there are ring-fenced ‘blocks’, including one for high needs, which are intended to control how local authorities allocate money across services. All schools receive a notional SEND allocation, which is an identified element within schools’ budgets that is expected to be used to cover low-cost, high-incidence SEND and as a contribution to the costs of pupils with higher needs.
Since 2014, mainstream schools have been formally required to cover up to the first £6,000 in additional costs (above basic per-pupil funding) of supporting pupils with SEND from their core schools budget but anything above that has to be funded by LA. As demand has increased exponentially through awarding of EHCPs then so has LA liability and therefore deficit.

Councils need to cover their costs which are massive. Otherwise things fall apart.

I live in Greater Manchester, my band B council tax is £500 a year more than there. Sounds like they have been kept too low for too long. It’s bad if you are already struggling money wise but that is incredibly cheap comparatively.

but the majority of the time the people paying for those things aren't the ones using them, which is where people get resentful.

My council does a breakdown of where the money goes. Of that, I 'make use' of rubbish collection, (which is significantly less frequent than it was when I moved in 8 years ago), street lighting, and road maintenance, except the roads by me never seem to get repaired. I suppose I also technically get the benefit of a local councillor but they are useless and don't even live in the area they cover. I also do appreciate that there are less measurable benefits, e.g. the council employing staff who then have money to spend in local services, keeping them open, etc.

But even added together, those services come to maybe 5% max of the council's outgoings - as you say the vast majority goes on education, social care, housing, none of which I use or have ever used. Obviously I understand I'm lucky to not need those service, and if it was a choice between paying my council tax or being in need of them I'd choose paying it every time.

But when people are struggling for every penny I can understand why they get fed up.

Yes, the council tax in Windsor sounds like it has been very low historically. Where I live was £2300 for Band D in 2024/25, so expecting over £2400 for next year.

Prior to the election, didn't Starmer commit to freezing council tax? The lying scrote.

I don't begrudge senior leaders of public services a good salary. We get a bargain when you look at what their private sector equivalents get paid.

What you have to remember is the significant restructure of local government will mean that putting council tax up. Ow will encourage the population to support the changes. The old, probably defunct council will no longer be there. It’s a win win for everyone but us.

however services are increasing in costs, experienced staff are leaving (certainly in the professions) in droves, there is a significant gap between upper management and those who do. Many go into public service because they truly believe they are doing the right thing, but there is so little respect for what I often see called ‘jobsworths’, at least I rarely hear the ‘I pay your wages’…

if only the wider public really understood what local government does. There is so much change coming

He said it would be frozen for a year, with the shortfall to be made up by a windfall tax on energy firms.

Ours is 15% apparently and they keep forgetting to pick up our recycling!