Stephen Atkinson takes pride in charging residents of the Ribble Valley low council tax rates - but it's coming at a very literal cost
The Conservative leader of a Lancashire council has told the government how setting low council taxes over years now means the council coffers are emptying. Stephen Atkinson, leader of Ribble Valley Borough Council, has said the Conservative-run council has become a victim of its own prudential success because councillors kept council tax rises very low – or frozen.
Council income also comes from central government too. But traditional funding has fallen and new arrangements can be short term. Many issues were considered at Ribble Valley Council’s latest Policy & Finance meeting. “Nearly half our funding comes from council tax. Historically we only increased this where necessary and also froze it during the era of council tax freeze funding. The consequence of these historic decisions is that we are now ‘locked into’ a low council tax which can only be increased marginally We feel we are being penalised for having not increased our council tax each year.
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