Councils imposing ‘stealth taxes’ on residents by raising fees

Councils in England have started imposing stealth taxes on residents by charging more for services such as waste collection, airports and bridge tolls, even in instances where services have been reduced.

The TaxPayers’ Alliance (TPA) found in an analysis of more than 22 services that some saw a reduction in fees, but in some of the most visible services charges have soared.

Fees and charges as a proportion of total service expenditure have risen from 8.7 per cent to 9.6 per cent. Sales, fees and charges that have increased include housing, environmental and regulatory services and planning, including bin collections and planning applications.

Bin collections fees and charges to individuals were 37 per cent higher in spite of many councils curtailing the number of bin collection days.

Cemetery, cremation and mortuary services fees and charges increased by 19.8 per cent to £291 million in 2015-16, despite the number of deaths only increasing by 6.5 per cent in England over the six tear period.

John O’Connell, chief executive at TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “These are considerable rate rises which will hit residents in England hard. In many instances people are being asked to pay more for services that have actually been reduced, such as fortnightly bin collections.

“Councils should ensure that they cut out all wasteful spending before asking taxpayers to pay big fees on top of their Council Tax bill."

Responding to the report, Claire Kober, chair of the Local Government Association’s Resources Board, said:

“This report clearly shows that councils receive almost £500 million less in income from fees and charges than they did five years ago. Faced with escalating costs and unprecedented funding cuts since 2010, this is a tremendous effort by councils to keep fees and charges low for hard-pressed residents.

“The bigger picture is that councils face an overall £5.8 billion funding gap by 2020.

“Even if councils stopped filling potholes, maintaining parks and open spaces, closed all children’s centres, libraries, museums, leisure centres, turned off every street light and shut all discretionary bus routes they still would not have saved enough money to plug this gap by the end of the decade.”