COUNCIL TAX

LynnT · COUNCIL TAX

Council tax bills may soar to cover free fares

The government said it would subsidise free bus travel

Millions of Yorkshire residents will have to pay up to £55m more in council tax to subsidise new free bus travel that the Government claimed would be paid for from central coffers.
Councils are being forced to raise council tax by up to four per cent to pay for the scheme, which will see about 11 million elderly people allowed to travel on buses for free from April 1.

The Department for Transport says it is providing the full costs to local authorities, which will then be responsible for reimbursing bus companies.

But the grant will actually only cover about a quarter of the total cost of implementing the move.

Metro, which will administer the scheme for the five councils in West Yorkshire, believes it will have to pay £46.4m to bus companies in the next financial year. It has been given a Government grant of just £8.7m.

Similarly South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive expects all concessionary travel to cost £29.4m, including £21.4m for the new arrangements. Its grant is £5.1m.

In North Yorkshire, the seven district councils and York will pay £4.4m and receive back £3.5m, but officials say that figure masks serious discrepancies within the county that will see many areas unfairly penalised.

Scarborough Council estimates it will pay £1.8m to bus companies but only get £840,000 from the Government. Harrogate Council is also set for a deficit of about £600,000.

Paul Cresswell, head of financial services at Scarborough Council and chairman of the North Yorkshire concessionary fares partnership, said: "We feel we're a very big loser under this scheme.

"If we were to transfer the whole cost onto the taxpayer it would put council tax up by 12 per cent – because of this it's been a massive fight to balance our budget. As it is money we wanted to save to invest in future services will now have to be spent on this instead.

"This scheme will overwhelm us, it will take up the second biggest chunk of our budget next year after waste management. As far as many people are concerned, we were not put into existence merely to deal with concessionary fares."

East Riding Council has not yet worked out how much the scheme will cost, but knows it will be left with a shortfall.

"All we can definitely say is that the Government's grant will not cover it," a spokesman said.

Hull Council, which has been given £1.25m by the Government, also said they felt this would be insufficient.

While elderly people have been allowed free travel on off-peak buses since April 2006, it has so far been limited to journeys within their district. From April, off-peak journeys to anywhere in England will be free, with the district at the journey's beginning footing the full bill.

Metro director of finance Angela Hirst said: "No one knows how the Government worked out their figures, all we know is that it's highly risky – and that there isn't enough money. This is a national scheme and we cannot control this, all we can do is wait and see what happens."

Robert Goodwill, Conservative MP for Scarborough and Whitby and Shadow Transport Minister, said: "We're of the opinion that the Government has understated the uptake and local authorities will be out of pocket big-time – and the Government will have to quite quickly reimburse councils accordingly."

The DfT said it was "confident" that the national £212m grant will be "sufficient to meet the total cost" and was based on "generous assumptions about the overall cost."

"The proposed grant distribution reflects the likely burden of cost and is designed to direct funding towards 'hotspot' areas such as coastal towns, urban centres and other authorities likely to experience an increase in concessionary bus journeys as a result of the new concessions," it added.

chimp

Council tax bills across West Yorks are very favourable as opposed to the rest of the country - don't always blame the council for the high raises - when there are precepts in there for Police, Fire, Local Public Transport providers and in some areas Parish/Town Councils. We do get good services really, schools, refuse, street lighting. environmental health (who would inspect all those dodgy takeaways etc..), licensing (pubs and taxis - safe vehicles ensured.. allegedly), highways (ok not always up to scratch - but the utility companies are buggers for making a mess sometimes), parks, leisure centres, sports pitches, libraries - people just love to bloody moan about the Council - as an employee - I will stick up for em. And only just scratched the surface there

Rach!

sorry if i sound a bit dense here but arent all council taxes the same?thought it was

so our council tax and a which is what were in is £90 a month

chimp

thats quite high for A - in Wakey band A (where I live - not work) is about £80 a month - if no parish/town council

Rach!

bloomin heck
think we might have to move