Local Audit and Accountability Bill — Clause 41 — Exclusion of City Deal Levies When Determining if Council Tax Rise Excessive — 17 Dec 2013 at 16:45

The majority of MPs voted to include council tax increases due to levies agreed as part of a city deal when considering if a council tax increase is excessive and needs to be put to a referendum.

The amendment rejected in this vote was:

• Amendment 18, page 31, line 2, at end insert—
• ‘(17) The Secretary of State may, by Order, exempt from the calculation of an authority’s basic amount of council tax any levies agreed as part of a City Deal signed prior to this Act receiving Royal Assent.’.

Had it not been rejected the above subclause would have been added to the Bill at the end of Clause 41^[2].

Under section 52ZB of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 (introduced via Schedule 5 of the Localism Act 2011 each local council which issues council tax bills, and each body which sets an amount to be collected though council tax, must determine whether its relevant basic amount of council tax for a financial year is excessive. If an authority’s relevant basic amount of council tax is excessive a referendum must be held in relation to the proposal to charge the amount proposed.

The principles for determining if an increase is deemed excessive are published in a report each year, and approved, or not, by Parliament. The principle can be just the setting of a cap, for 2013-14 council tax rises without referenda a cap of 2% was set^[3].

Some "City Deal" documents^[4], eg. that for Leeds^[5], include proposals to be funded by additional levies on council tax, there it is West Yorkshire Integrated Transport Authority's "transport levy".

Had it not been rejected this amendment would have made it possible for the Secretary of State to exempt such levies from counting towards council tax increases when calculating if the increase is excessive and requires a referendum to approve it.

• [1] Parliament's webpage on the Local Audit and Accountability Bill (now an Act)
• [2] Clause 41 of the Local Audit and Accountability Bill as at the time of the vote
• [3] The Referendums Relating to Council Tax Increases (Principles) Report (England) 2013/2014
• [4] City Deal Wave One Documents
• [5] Leeds region city deal document

Debate in Parliament | Source |