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Local council tax in UK

Any local authority in Britain desiring to raise council tax by more than 3.5% next year must consult the public in a ballot, the govt has related.

Under plans unveiled by Local State Secretary Eric Pickles, councils losing a referendum would need to fall back to a lower increase in bills.

Councils wanting to raise bills in difficult commercial times needed a "direct democratic mandate" to do so , he announced.

Ministers have offered English councils money to freeze bills next year.

However , 1 council - Brighton and Hove Council - has stated that it plans to raise council tax announcing govt budget cuts have made this necessary.

Powers to hold local referendums over council tax were authorised as an element of the Localism Act, passed by Parliament latterly.

Mr Pickles declared on Thursday that the trigger for a council tax vote would be any council proposing a rise in bills of more than 3.5%.

This threshold, which must be approved by Parliament, would only apply during 2012-3. In future years, the level will be decided by ministers at the time.

Mr Pickles asserted the plan would stop "big" bill increases and was a "radical extension" of direct democracy.

"Councils have a moral duty to help hard-working families and OAPs with the cost of living," he announced. "If they'd like to hike taxes on their local residents above 3.5% they can now have to get a direct democratic mandate to do it."

The BBC's local govt hack Mike Sergeant said the vote threshold had been set lower than anticipated - some way below the current rate of inflation which stands at 5.0%.

Most English councils have frozen council tax for the last two years, receiving contributions from govt if they choose to keep bills down.

But Brighton and Hove City Council, which is run by the Green Party, said earlier in the month that it would need to increase council tax by 3.5% each year for the following 2 years so as to protect key services and the most vulnerable residents.

Under current proposals, the council would not be required to hold a referendum unless it suggested a 3.6% rise to the present tax bands.

Yearly Whitehall funds for local state is due to fall by about 7% between 2011 and 2015 as part of the coalition's delinquency reduction drive.

Labour have indicted the govt. of front-loading cuts on town halls so they are forced to reduce services and staff. But a recent report by the Local Central authority Association advised a lot of councils were managing the budget squeeze and not facing immediate fiscal difficulties.

There are numerous levels of council tax bands in the United Kingdom sometimes determined by the local authority as a tax band

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