Ealing Council Tax Frozen
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Ealing Council has now kept council tax rates the same since 2009.
The decision was made at a meeting of the full council on February 23rd means families living in an average Band D property will pay £1,354.93 from April 2016 to March 2017. This includes £276 to the Mayor of London, a 6.4% decrease on last year which means council tax will actually fall slightly in Ealing.
The government had given permission for an increase of up to 3.9% to safeguard services, but in Ealing councillors voted for a freeze after declaring government funding cuts had not impacted on it as much as expected .
Councillor Julian Bell, who leads the Labour administration at the Town Hall, said: “I’m delighted we’ve again been able to freeze council tax, despite the enormous pressures on our budgets in recent years.
“I think it is right to protect our residents from further financial burden."
Simian Jeremiah, 23, a student at the University of West London said: “The prospect of leaving university and still having council tax frozen is exciting. Hopefully the council will be able to keep it frozen for as long as possible!”
The council will allocate £2.3million extra for social care next year, rising to £4million by 2019/20. It also intends to create a special £5million ‘social care transformation fund’ to redesign services so that fewer people need intensive help in future years to come.
Councillor Yvonne Johnson, cabinet member for finance, performance and customer services, added: “Ealing is making plans for a further £12milllion of efficiency savings by April 2020 , in addition to the budget reductions already agreed."