Council leaders have written to Chancellor Rachel Reeves demanding the right to impose higher council tax increases and new charges such as local tourism taxes, to avoid “system-wide financial failure”. Authorities are currently unable to raise council tax by more than 5% without holding a referendum of local voters, effectively making bigger increases impossible. But the Local Government Association (LGA) has told Ms Reeves that councils need “more freedoms on local taxes and charges”.
In a submission ahead of the November 26 Budget, backed by Labour, Conservative, Reform and Liberal Democrat council leaders, the LGA said: “Councils need a significant increase in overall funding to stem the emerging risk of system-wide…