Kettering freezes its council tax for eleventh year

Kettering Council has frozen its council tax for the eleventh year in a row.

Against the recommendation of its finance officers, auditors and the opposition, the Conservative administration voted last night (Feb 26) to not charge residents a penny more from April for their borough council services.

This is the last ever budget the council will set as it is due to be closed down next year along with the other seven councils in Northamptonshire. In May elections will be held for two new shadow unitary authorities that will replace the existing councils in April 2021.

Finance portfolio holder Cllr Lloyd Bunday said the authority was able to keep its council tax level the same due to its commercial investments programme.

Kettering Council has however spent £41.4m on commercial investments this year, borrowing £48.8m in the process. However the income gained from the rental of the properties has netted the council £1.38m.

The authority has also not committed large sums of reserves to spending sprees unlike neighbours such as Corby which has spent £5m on improvements across the town since the unitary plans were announced and this week Wellingborough Council revealed plans to commit £1m to getting the long-awaited Isham bypass started.Making reference to an earlier meeting where he had likened the other councils’ spending policies as resembling the short-term thinking of couples planning a lavish wedding and honeymoon, Cllr Bunday said: “Sadly some of our neighbours still appear to be on the plane back from Ibiza.”

Conservative Cllr Philip Hollobone said the authority may be the only one in the country to freeze council tax for eleven years in a row and said it was testament to the ‘inspired leadership of Russell Roberts’.

He said: “Local residents want their council tax frozen which is why Conservatives keep getting elected.”

Last night lots of opposition councillors shared their annoyance at the Conservative group’s refusal to heed officers advice and charge residents more for their services.

The report to councillors has said: “Office advice is to consider a council tax increase to the threshold level of £5 for 2020/21 – this would yield an additional £165,000 and would help contribute to the challenging medium term savings target.”

The cost of the average Band B property in Kettering is £159.75 per year.

The council tax for Kettering residents will however rise as the county council and the fire service and police service have raised their council tax levels.

Leader of the Labour opposition Cllr Mick Scrimshaw proposed amendments to the £9.4m annual budget including spending more on street cleaning and also hiring a dedicated officer to investigate fly tipping.

He said: “These are small changes funded from income from your own investment plans that won’t make a penny difference to your revenue budget ambitions, but will help address some issues of local concern that as councillors we get complaints about all the time.”

The amendments were voted down by the ruling group.

And Labour Cllr Maggie Don accused the Conservatives of lacking vision.

Independent councillor Jim Hakewill, who stepped down as a Conservative in 2018, also spoke out against the freeze on council tax.

He said: “There has been a lost decade in the life of the borough council by keeping council tax at zero. But it is not zero, it is inflation eating away, year after year after year.”

A budget amendment to change the recently agreed two hours free parking from 3pm in the town centre to two hours free anytime was also defeated.

There was a victory for the Labour group last night as the council said it would continue to allow residents to buy their parking permits in the council offices rather than an online only option.