Council Tax
Why does Council tax keep going up?
Since 2010, the Council has lost around £100m in Government funding every year. We have a number of efficiency and cost-reduction programmes that help us to plan our finances carefully, but ongoing inflationary pressures, and demand on services - such as Adults and Children’s Social Care, and Housing and Homelessness - have led to significant additional pressures, both here in Coventry as well as across the country.
In comparison, a 1% increase in Council Tax now provides us with a £1.7m monetary increase for the Council. Currently, legally, we can only raise Council Tax by 2.99% (plus up to a 2% social care precept) without holding a local referendum.
This all means that the Council Tax increase, while necessary, is barely scratching the surface of the funding and demand pressures. We do not want to raise Council Tax, however it is assumed in government funding allocations that all Councils raise by the maximum. We have been continuing to engage with Government on an updated funding regime based on need and expect to find out more later this year on how this will affect Coventry.
Why don’t students have to pay Council Tax? You’d have more money if they did.
The law states that being a full-time student classifies you as a "disregarded person" and, therefore, you don't need to pay Council Tax under any circumstances. That is a national law and not in the Council’s gift to change.