COUNTY councillors have failed to agree how much it will charge residents for its share of Council Tax for the 2025-26 financial year.
Warwickshire County Council’s (WCC) Reform leadership was unable to pass its budget – which proposed a tax rise of around £71 a year for the average Band D home – after it was voted down by the Conservative, Liberal Democrat and Green groups.
Reform proposed a 3.89 per cent rise in WCC’s share of Council Tax – but the other parties favoured a larger increase to protect services from cuts and reduce future financial pressure on the council.
In December, WCC’s board said anything below a 4.99% council tax rise – the maximum permitted by law – would threaten the medium-term sustainability of the council.
Speaking to The Guardian ahead of the council meeting, WCC leader Coun George Finch said: “We want low tax, low spend and we were always committed to that. It’s just national pressures that the government is not solving.
“The people understand that taxes do have to go up now. I am dead against increasing taxes and I will do as much as I can to lower that bill and that burden.”
WCC’s official opposition Liberal Democrat Group said Reform’s proposals would put WCC’s future financial ability ‘at serious risk’.
The group’s leader, Coun Jerry Roodhouse, said: “Reform will put at serious risk the future financial ability of the County Council, and whatever replaces it, to meet the needs of the county’s residents.”
WCC’s Conservative Group said Reform’s decision not to take the maximum 4.99 per cent increase would leave the council in a vulnerable position by removing money from financial reserves.
Coun Chris Kettle said: “The council’s reserves are there to protect services from unplanned increases in cost, whether through inflation or increasing demand, not to fund unfunded political aspirations. The people of Warwickshire will see through this reckless approach.”
The budget decision has been deferred until a meeting on February 17.
