Most of you will have received your council tax bill by now, an increase of 3% by Hastings Borough Council and East Sussex County Council, but pushed up to 4% overall by an increase for the Sussex Police & Crime Commissioner of 14.5%. Money going to pay for Police services looks reasonable, we all know that central government funding to the Police has dropped significantly since 2010, indeed, there are now well over 20,000 fewer police officers in the country, but the extra money that Government has recently said would be spent on Police services is to come directly from us (council taxes), not from the Government, consequently the 14.5% increase!
The bill for people living in accommodation rated at Band A is shown above (£1,271.89 increased to £1,322.58), and percentage increases are the same for other bands too; eg for Band D £1,907.83 to £1,983.86 and for Band G £3,179.72 to £3,306.44 (
HBC).
What isn't obvious from these figures, that have risen, roughly, along with inflation since
Austerity Measures were introduced by Central Government in 2010, which sounds reasonable. However, since 2010,
Central Government Revenue Support Grants to local councils have
reduced each year, and this year 168 out of 353 councils in the country no longer receive these grants (
LGA), and you've got it, Hastings has been one of those fast-tracked to no grant at all this year! That is, for 2010-11, Hastings received over £14 million in grant, and this has reduced to nothing for us this year (
HBC).
Aren't
Austerity Measures wonderful (
Forbes)?
