“THE average council tax bill is approaching £2,000 – or has surpassed it in Studley and Alcester – while the number of borough residents who have lost their jobs since January 2020 is close to 2,000.
It doesn’t take a genius to work out that fewer people will be able to pay – and that’s not including those on furlough and those just struggling to get by.
It’s easy to blame the local authorities for the council tax increase but the real culprit is central government, which has been cutting local government grants for ten years.
The purse strings simply must be loosened.“
Ross Crawford (editor of the Redditch Standard)
