Many North Yorkshire residents are likely to feel unfairly treated as a result of efforts to harmonise council tax bills across the county, a meeting has heard.
Hambleton residents are set to see “two years of pain” with extra charges of about £45 on top of whatever council tax rises are set in 2023 and 2024, while those in the Scarborough Borough and Harrogate district are likely to see much lower increases.
A North Yorkshire County Council meeting heard an in-depth study of all the options to harmonise council tax payments across the county’s seven districts and boroughs ahead of a unitary authority being launched in March had concluded a two-year phase-in period would be the fairest option.
Councillors were told the main issue was Harrogate borough had a very high level of council tax while Hambleton district had a very low level of council tax, partly due to having sold its council housing stock.
By averaging out the council tax demands across the county, band D taxpayers in Harrogate borough would pay £46.95 less annually, Scarborough borough £35 less and Richmondshire £16 less and residents in Ryedale about the same.
However, residents in Selby and Craven would need to pay more than £20 more and those in Hambleton would need to pay nearly £90 a year extra.
The meeting heard councillors and officers had looked at many options as well as the experiences of Buckinghamshire and Dorset when those areas formed unitary authorities, before concluding a two-year phase-in for a single county-wide council tax charge had been “by far the most pragmatic solution”.
The meeting heard phasing the single council tax charges over four years would have incurred high administration costs for the authority, while “giving some people pain four years in a row while giving others pleasure four years in a row”.
It means under the proposals Harrogate borough residents will continue to pay £23 more than the average North Yorkshire resident for the next two years to receive the same services while Hambleton residents pay £45 less than the average.
The meeting heard “fairness has many faces” as residents from both Harrogate and Hambleton may feel hard done by as a result.
Councillor Andy Brown said as the county council had predicted there would be massive savings from local government reorganisation residents of areas such as Hambleton and Craven would be wondering why they were facing much higher council tax bills.
He questioned how quickly measures to bring council tax bills down would be introduced.
The meeting heard the vast majority of the forecast £70m savings from the reorganisation were not expected to be realised immediately, but the new council was facing a £80m funding gap due to its existing deficit and inflationary pressures so it was highly unlikely the savings would not be used to lower council tax.
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