00:00Doubling taxes is outrageous.
00:03There hadn't been any forewarning that something like this was going to happen.
00:06Yeah, I'm going to have to get my spreadsheets out. This is going to be really hard.
00:09Council tax bills in the south London borough of Wandsworth are set to nearly double in what would be a
00:14record increase.
00:15So what's behind the rise? And could Londoners in other boroughs also be facing the same crippling increase in council
00:22tax?
00:23Wandsworth Council, which covers areas like Putney, Battersea, Ballam and Tooting,
00:27has announced plans to increase the council tax for a band D property from £1,020 to £1,978 a
00:36year from April 2027.
00:38A rise of £958, which is 94% higher than the current levy.
00:44It will take the Tory minority-run borough, which was once hailed by Margaret Thatcher as her favourite local authority,
00:50from having the lowest council tax rates in the country to around average levels.
00:55So I'm here in Wandsworth Common to see what residents have to say about the rise and how they're going
01:00to adjust to it.
01:01Complete shock.
01:02No, I don't think it's fair.
01:05Astronomical when you're impacting that change.
01:07Definitely frustrated and concerning that they've had to come to a point where they've had to increase it by so
01:14much.
01:14It's a huge increase and there's no warning. It's not gradual.
01:18It's just, it just feels insane. Why and how can they justify that?
01:24Doubling taxes.
01:28It's just, it's outrageous. There is no time to adjust to that.
01:33Wandsworth has been very lucky that it has managed to retain its position as having the lowest council rate in
01:38the country for a very long time.
01:40And given everything that's going on in the world at the moment, geopolitical tensions, prices are going up every way.
01:49So I understand.
01:51The council have been making complaints at the spending position that they've been left in.
01:57So it's possibly, when you think about it, not much of a surprise, but there hadn't been any forewarning that
02:03something like this was going to happen.
02:05I think it's politically motivated, if you ask me.
02:07That's why, because Wandsworth has been sort of a flagship of basically well-run councils with low taxes.
02:15So I think there is more than just redistribution.
02:19How is that going to change how you're going to be able to afford things, how you might have to
02:22adjust your budgeting and things like that?
02:23There's definitely going to have to be a reallocation, because we've got, I mean, increasing cost of childcare, increasing food
02:30prices, increasing gas and electricity bills.
02:33The housing market's not looking great. So there's not a lot of give.
02:38Yeah, that's going to be a pinch. And yeah, I will feel that.
02:42And, you know, that will be very difficult for a lot of households in the borough.
02:47I used to live around the corner, actually, and now I'm divorced.
02:50I think, jeepers, it's a tight budget. It is a tight budget.
02:55I mean, to be honest, I was already worrying about what I'm going to do to adjust my spending to
02:59deal with gas and electricity prices going up again.
03:03So this on top, yeah, I'm going to have to get my spreadsheets out. This is going to be really
03:07hard.
03:08There seems to be a lot of finger pointing, but not much compassion from the council.
03:12Wandsworth Council blamed the Labour government's fair funding reforms,
03:15which will see spending shifted from affluent parts of London to the north for reducing the borough's funding by £84
03:21million a year.
03:23They said these savage and dramatic cuts are equivalent to the borough's total combined annual spending on parks, libraries, leisure
03:30centres, bin collection and street cleaning.
03:32The council insists they must make tough choices unless the government can agree on a fair and more sustainable settlement
03:38for all Wandsworth residents.
03:40Though the leader of the opposition in Wandsworth, Labour councillor Simon Hogg, has called the decision outrageous.
03:46We're doing it now, and not as is normally the case in early Feb, so that local people have the
03:52maximum amount of time to adjust.
03:54This isn't a decision that I, as leader of the council, ever wanted us to have to make.
03:58We're doing it because of savage cuts from central government and a dramatic reduction in level reserves that we inherited
04:05following the recent May elections.
04:06Now, usually, council tax can't be raised by more than 5% in one move.
04:12However, five London councils, Kensington and Chelsea, Westminster, Wandsworth, City of London and Hammersmith and Fulham,
04:19have been given special permission by the government to go beyond this cap.
04:22Westminster Council also warned over the summer it is facing an unprecedented £100 million drop in government funding over the
04:30next three years.
04:31They even wrote to 200,000 residents to see what council services they want to see scrapped.
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