Council Tax Bills across North Yorkshire look set to be harmonised.
A group looking at how council tax bills in North Yorkshire are calculated has concluded that they should be standardised across the county.
Currently bills differ between districts and boroughs, but with the local councils being replaced by a single unitary council for the whole county in April, councillors have decided to standardise the bill so that rates are the same across North Yorkshire.
The county council's Director of Strategic Resources - Gary Fielding - says a report concluded harmonisation was the way forward.
A cross party group of councillors have been looking at the issues around harmonising the council tax bills across England's largest county and have concluded that bringing in standard rates across North Yorkshire is the fairest way forward.
However a meeting of North Yorkshire County Council’s executive was told the idea “provokes a whole host of issues around fairness”.
The meeting heard that residents in Hambleton district were facing having to pay significantly higher bills to bring their charges into line with those being levied by second tier authorities elsewhere in the county.
However, leading members highlighted that many Hambleton residents were also facing significant council tax charges for services such as public toilets that were levied by town and parish councils that in other places were being charged for by district councils.
In addition, concerns have been raised that under proposals to level up council tax charges across the county over two years residents in districts such as Harrogate, Scarborough and Richmondshire, residents would end up paying more for the same services from the unitary council for the next two years.
Councillors were told while Selby and Craven district residents faced paying relatively modest increases in their council tax to bring their payments up to the average, Hambleton district residents were paying £89 less than the average district council charge across the county.
The County Council's Director of Strategic Resources - Gary Fielding - says it's been a complicated issue.
The authority’s executive member for finance, Councillor Gareth Dadd, said there was no easy way for the council to harmonise council tax charges and that there would be “winners and losers”.
He said while Hambleton residents paid less council tax by the district council than other areas, they paid council tax charges to town and parish councils that residents of other areas did not.
Councillor Dadd said:
“In some of the ‘winning’ areas there currently isn’t a town council that picks up some of the services.”
After receiving the approval of the authority’s executive, residents will be consulted over the proposal, which will also be considered at a full meeting of the council next month.
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