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

In our area, not far from W&M, we have children with SEN costing in excess of £100k each per year for their educational needs. There are individual families, because there are several similar children who are costing close to £500k per year. That money does not come from central government. It comes from council tax. It does not take many highly complex families like this to eat vast amounts of council tax intake each year.

Then, social care. In an area where people are unable to self fund, the council has to provide. The whole system has been broken for decades and is getting worse as the population ages. Yet, successive governments don't want to do anything about it, because it will cost money. And no one wants to have to pay for it, so it will never win votes. And government is ultimately all about winning a popularity contest in the form of a general election.

Why does sen care cost so much? Is it that state run sen schools have closed?

I don't complain about lack of services though. Personally I would choose to reduce what I pay and for my council to cut back heavily on services across the board. I don't think I've set foot in a library for 35 years...

I bet if you gave me the budget of every local council I could find savings. Maybe not enough to offset the increased costs of essential services, but I’ll bet there’s still loads of waste. Anyone with any DEI jobs, paying any consultants, running drag queen story time or sponsoring Pride still clearly have too much money (and I’m gay and immigrant).

It is very often cheaper in wealthier areas. I think at one point Kensington & Chelsea was one of the cheapest and Liverpool one of the highest.

You have a point, but, where are these services?
Glad I can go back to my country of origin and have a good life there, if this steady decline becomes unbearable.

It’s still an anomaly. Buckinghamshire to the north is wealthier, mostly Conservative and their council tax is c £500/year more expensive for Band D

Council tax is cheaper in expensive areas because the needs of the local population tend to be lower

It's one reason why I think it's such a poor tax- areas of greatest deprivation and greatest needs and are populated by those least able to pay

In my experience, they refuse to support the children for years when they are younger so it ends up in an expensive car crash in their teens.

CAMHS doesn't really exist anymore either which doesn't help.

Ours has proposed 15%. I guess it'll just mean more people won't / can't pay . I'm not sure what councils can realistically do about it . If people don't have the money they don't have the money .

There aren't enough places. Increasing numbers of children needing specialist places. Some end up having to be transported miles away and/or in private settings. Or with 1:1 teaching. Etc. Kids that in the past would have been written off and forgotten about because their needs are so complex.

Stand for council then. Get involved. Make a difference.

It is very often cheaper in wealthier areas. I think at one point Kensington & Chelsea was one of the cheapest and Liverpool one of the highest

Yes, it's almost always cheaper in wealthier areas. I've explained upthread why this is.
Naturally there are exceptions that prove the rule though (eg Rutland).

Whatever you pay, it is what we are getting for the money, how it is being managed and how much is being wasted (worked for a local authority and it really did what it liked, laughed at councillors, spent inordinate amounts on talking and very little in doing, and don't get me started on the waste and inefficiencies of oursourcing....). 25% of council tax pays for pensions, that's unsustainable, plus it is tax and the taxation in this country, with income, VAT, council, utilities and bailing out inept private companies.... is really pushing the limits of people's incomes and ability to live!https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/12/26/local-council-tax-pension-government-inflation-scheme/

If I could see money being spent wisely, then fine, but I fail to see how outsourcing care (of any kind) to private companies, who take far too much in profits, or SEN provision (just examples of issues always looking for more funding), when what has been spent to date has failed to address many of the issues and seems to be a bottomless pit that no one is looking at for actual benefits to the child, then we really need to put some real care into who manages our money and not assume funding what is will work with more!

Forgot to add, we are looking at 15.5% from our supposedly nearly bankrupt County Council and not seen the rises predicted from Borough, Parish, Police, Fire... yet!

a huge, huge percentage of council budgets is care. See all the posts on here about people trying to get out of their parents care costs to preserve their inheritance. Someone has to pay.

I think you’re right. The total disintegration of CAMHS and the inability to ‘nip problems in the bud’ has saved money on CAMHS while sending other costs exponentially higher. This isn’t sen related though.

I think it should be the same scales for everyone in the country so it's evened out. It's not like people in Kensington only drive in Kensington or if you went to York for a mini break the police would refuse to help you if a crime happened.

And it's not as simple as population size. E.g. the London fireworks are partially funded by the GLA arts & culture fund, which is partially funded by council tax.

This is the crux of the issue. I think we need to have honest discussions about this and what we as a society are prepared to pay, especially for SEN education. If we aren't willing as a society to pay for the £100k+ placements for children then we need to be candid about that rather than pretending that it's the big bad state that won't just pay up. We then need to look at cheaper alternatives that will undoubtedly be less comprehensive and meet less needs but will ultimately be sustainable. We are doing absolutely nobody any flavours by pretending we can carry on as we are currently going and that council and other taxes can just keep rising inordinately to meet the spiralling costs.

It’s like childrens homes, care homes and council housing is it? Save money by selling them off in the short term, don’t build any more and outsource to private providers who charge an absolute bomb but the council has no choice than to pay?

The reason they can do this I believe is because they are saying they are bankrupt and this is the get out clause, although Angela Rayner has to sign it off. Most councils still have to go to a referendum/consultation if they want to go higher than 5%

That said there are quite a number over extended who will be seeking to use this loophole, and you can’t blame one party as all parties are involved

Move North. You’ll be lucky to find a library. All our services have already been cut and we’re still paying through the nose. My CT is over £4k.

Whilst I agree that to receive a certain level of services we need to pay council tax, there needs to be limits set on what is acceptable.

The current spending on SEN is not sustainable or fair on the council tax payer. The constant need for everyone's needs to be met exactly how they want them to be is not affordable, £100,000k a year for the education of 1 child is not sustainable or a good use of resources. Transporting chikdren in taxis at ££££ cost is not acceptable.

Given council tax is going to squeeze even more out of everyone it needs to be fair and wisely allocated. Having worked for a council it's still clear that budgets are not managed properly.

So how do you propose looking after SEN children ?

Dump them ? Forget about them ? Brush them under the carpet ?

You many not have set foot in a library but the future doctors who will treat you when you are older, the future engineers who will maintain the roads for you to drive on and the future emergency services who will keep you safe will want to use those libraries as kids.

Pretty much...that seems to be the order of the day with the disabled, sick and vulnerable. But don't worry, the assisted dying bill will not at all be influenced by such ideas and I'm sure appropriate safeguards will be put in place just as they are for those with severe care needs...like this lucky woman...oh wait

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jan/28/terminal-illness-care-england-motor-neurone-disease