This is a Guest Post
Hello peps, today I am going to explain how it is possible to lower your Council Tax, and put some money away into the Council’s piggy bank more commonly known as reserves.
But before I do, some of you, and perhaps not all of you will be aware Folkestone & Hythe District Council, since 2004/05, have had the highest Council Tax of any Council in Kent. That’s 20 straight years.
On one of my election leaflets, I state clearly there are solutions to lower your Council Tax.
So here is my proposal to cut your Council Tax.
As you may or may not know, Oportunitas Ltd a Council owned company has failed to make an operating profit since it was incorporated in 2014.
It has assets (property) worth £10.3m as of 31 March 2022
As the company is failing, I would ask my fellow Cllrs, if elected, to sell these assets and use half the money to lower your Council Tax and half to go into the Council reserves.
So how much would this lower your Council Tax bill by.
Using the 2023/24 the Council Tax requirement for our district only (not KCC, KFRS or Kent Police) was £14,289,513. The Council tax base was calculated at 39,977 by the Council. Divide one by the other and one arrives at £357.
If the Council were to use £5.125m from the proceeds of selling the properties Oportunitas owns, towards lowering your Council tax, the sum you would have to pay is £229. A reduction of £128. This would mean your Council Tax would fall by £12.80 a month. Welcome money during a cost of living crisis. Council Tax is normally paid over 10 months.
Overall your bill would fall to £2,094 on a Band D property; which is slightly more than you paid in 21/22. And it would also mean residents of the district wouldn’t have the highest council tax in Kent.
Of course, one could use the whole £10.3m which would mean you’d pay £99 over 10 months and create a saving to you of £258. However, it would not be wise or prudent to do this. That’s because we need to replenish the reserves, as they’ve been used to balance the Council’s budget for a number of years as Cllr Prater made clear at Full Council on the 22 February 2023
Also, if Princes Parade was consigned to the history books, the budget assigned to that could be used to lower your Council Tax as well.
Both of these solutions would reduce your Council Tax bill by £12.80 – 14.50 a month. There would be no loss of services to residents, as those in the properties owned by Oportunitas could remain in the properties. That would have to be part of the deal for any potential buyer.
It can be done. It is what I would propose if elected. You as residents do not need to suffer the ignomy of having the highest Council Tax of any Kent Council for longer than need be. As such with these doable solutions in mind I ask you to
VOTE RYLANDS
Folkestone Central
May 4th
