Northumberland Labour on council tax support scheme

The Tory-led administration at County Hall committed last week to continue to provide 92 per cent of council tax relief to the county’s most vulnerable residents. In doing so, deputy leader Councillor Richard Wearmouth called out Labour leaders at other authorities in the North East for failing to provide such a high level of support.

But Labour has now hit back, pointing out that residents in Northumberland face a high level of council tax. The party also said it had “consistently” voted against rises in council tax proposed by the Conservative administration.

Data from think tank the Taxpayer’s Alliance showed that, on average, residents in Northumberland pay out 9.12 per cent of their average household income in council tax. This was done by comparing council tax rates with ONS data on local earnings.

The median gross pay in Northumberland is £24,655 while the annual council tax bill for a Band D property is £2,248. This was the second highest in the LA7 group of local authorities in the North East of those the TA had figures for, Durham County Council being the exception.

Only Gateshead residents faced a higher tax burden at 9.32 per cent. The annual gross pay in the local authority area is £25,024, while the band D council tax annual bill is £2,332.

In comparison, taxpayers in Newcastle paid out 8.08%, while in North Tyneside the figure stood at 7.82 per cent.

The leader of Northumberland Labour, Cllr Scott Dickinson MBE accused the Conservatives of attempting to mislead the public.

He said: “We have consistently voted against the huge rises the Tories have implemented, causing harm to families and of course the rate of support needs to be higher in Northumberland because they have made the council tax one of the highest in the entire UK.

“To suggest neighbouring authorities who charge far less and deliver for residents are not doing their best would be laughable if it wasn’t so serious and so far from the truth.”

But deputy leader of Northumberland County Council Richard Wearmouth hit back at the accusations, and said the comments were “entirely hypocritical”.

He criticised the previous Labour administration, which left office in 2017, over its planned move of County Hall to Ashington and the purchase of the Manor Walks shopping Centre in Cramlington at what Cllr Wearmouth claimed was an above-market price.

He added: “Our Conservative council has steadied the ship, stopping Labour’s reckless spending and setting a plan for the future full of opportunity for Northumberland residents. Labour in every budget have argued for more spending not less.

“All that stopped them bankrupting Northumberland like other Labour councils, such as Croydon, have done was the public having the sense to boot them out of office and keep them out. Our council tax is in line with other large county councils, but our support schemes are more generous than neighbouring Labour-run councils.

“We will take no lessons from their very poor financial management whilst we  continue to follow prudent and careful spending so ensuring our residents get real value for money from their council tax.”