As you may have seen, Wandsworth Council claims your council tax has been frozen. This does not provide a full picture of what the council is charging you or the state of its finances.
Wandsworth Council is actually increasing its share of council tax, again. It will go up by 2% through a charge for Adult Social Care. Your local tax is over 6% higher than when Labour took control three years ago.
Wandsworth has imposed large increases in permit charges, including for electric vehicles. Those in council-managed housing are being hit particularly hard. Labour has increased our council tenants' rents by 18.4%, while hiking the charges paid by leaseholders.
Despite those increases, there is an £11 million hole in the budget. To fund this year’s tax ‘freeze’, the Labour administration is raiding the reserves left by Wandsworth Conservatives. It would take a 15% tax hike to maintain these reserves and fill their budget hole. By the next local elections, Labour will have run down reserves by around £90 million – and they plan to spend at least £150 million of the reserves by 2028. This is unsustainable.
And on top of that, Wandsworth Council now plans to borrow over £900 million, at a total cost of £1.9 BILLION. Labour claims this staggering sum will finance new housing, but no homes will be built beyond those planned by the previous Conservative administration.
These projects could be financed by other means – including private investment, as originally intended. Instead, Labour is saddling residents with debt, which will cost more to pay off than the sum actually being borrowed. If Labour’s plans aren’t stopped, eventually, they will be forced to significantly increase your council tax.
We still have time to act. The local elections next year are a chance to limit the damage, reverse Labour’s worst decisions and restore financial responsibility.
