Hammersmith and Fulham leading the way by cutting tax and lowering debt

Skip Navigation

Hammersmith and Fulham leading the way by cutting tax and lowering debt

Monday December 12, 2011

Council tax bills are set to fall by 3.75% in Hammersmith & Fulham (H&F) – thanks in part to the fact that services are being combined with neighbouring authorities.

It is the fifth year out of six that council tax bills are set to come down at the west London authority. The average council taxpayer in H&F is set to be £243 better off compared to the average Londoner... based on five years of tax cuts at a time when average council tax bills in the capital have risen by £73.

The move is set to take H&F’s council tax level to the third lowest in the country.

The former UK ‘Council of the Year’ is also on course to cut its historic debt from £176 million to a projected £94 million by the end of the next financial year saving our local taxpayers £7.1 million in debt repayments every year.

The news comes at a time when, according to a Local Government Chronicle survey, a fifth of councils across the UK may not take up the Government’s financial incentive to freeze council tax next year.

Cllr Stephen Greenhalgh, the Leader of H&F, said: “Combining services, management, overhead costs and expertise across councils is not only leading to better services in many areas, it is ensuring that taxpayers are enjoying some of the lowest council tax bills in the country.

“Whilst the cost of living continues to rise, we are proud to be putting money back in the wallets of our local taxpayers and we are proud to be protecting frontline services.”

Eric Pickles, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, welcomed the move by saying: "Councils need to do their bit to help families and pensioners with the cost of living. The Government's council tax freeze initiative is helping keep bills down, but Hammersmith and Fulham has gone even further by cutting council tax yet again. Its councillors and officers should be congratulated for protecting frontline services and making creative savings through more joint working and better property management."

The planned tax cut, which needs to be ratified by H&F’s Full Council in February, comes as H&F, Westminster City Council and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC) are combining services in many areas, including children’s services, adult social care and library services. H&F already shares a Chief Executive with RBKC along with some other environmental services.

Combining services will reduce management and overhead costs by 50% which is saving taxpayers in the three areas £33.4 million over four years. Of that £3.2 million is being saved next year in H&F. This is helping to pay for the tax cut while helping to protect frontline services.

The 3.75% reduction would bring H&F £1 below RBKC’s tax level, when including levies for the maintenance of garden squares, and closer to Westminster City Council.

While planning to cut tax, H&F is intending to freeze parking charges, keep all its libraries open, maintain weekly or even twice-weekly refuse collection and plough £1.3 million into extra town centre police. It is also one of just two councils in London offering homecare to people in the ‘greater moderate’ as well as ‘substantial’ or ‘critical’ banding.

H&F boasts some of the cleanest streets in London, six of its parks have received the prestigious ‘Green Flag’ award for their quality and its schools have posted the best ever GCSE results. The borough, which recently saw three new schools open, has more pupils going to top universities than any other place in Britain.

This comes on top of the fact that the council’s debt is on course to be cut by more than £80 million from its historic high next year, thanks in part to the fact that the council has cut is accommodation by a third, selling underused buildings or pulling services together in specially designed hubs. The Council’s accommodation footprint has come down from 51,420 sq m in 06-07 to a projected 38,724 in 2012/13.

Part of that involves selling Fulham Town Hall which is in a poor state of repair and with limited public access. Selling the building will ensure it is better maintained and preserved as part of Fulham’s heritage – while also expecting to save taxpayers £500,000 a year in running and repair costs.

Cllr Greenhalgh added: "We are leading the way in sound financial management which has led to lower tax bills, lower debt and better services. Part of that prudent management involves sharing services and management costs across borders. This ensures that we have the very best people doing the job. Take libraries for example – it means we can keep our libraries open and our residents can enjoy a better service because they will be able to borrow books from any library across the Tri-Borough areas.”


 Budget 2012/13 summary:

£22.8 million is being saved in 2012/13. The headlines:

  • Tri-borough: £3.2m
  • Increased income from sponsorship, advertising, and enforcement (parking charges are frozen): £5.5m
  • NHS contribution towards provision of Adult Social Care: £3.0m
  • More efficient procurement/commissioning: £3.6m
  • Improving customer access (making sure more services are available online, thus reducing transaction costs): £1.6m
  • Other reductions in staffing and management costs or increased productivity: £1.58m
  • Continuing to reduce the number of children in care through fostering, adoption or other preventative work: £0.6m
  • Transforming/rationalising the provision of financial advice and accounting services: £0.5m
  • Introduction of social enterprise/mutuals to run school improvement service and some traded services: £0.15m
  • Reduction in communication costs: £0.1m


 Notes to editor:

  • Next year’s average Band D Council Tax bill is set to be £781.34, without the London Mayor’s precept, a reduction of £30.44 on 2011/12 levels
  • H&F was judged to be Britain’s Council of the Year in the 2010 Local Government Chronicle Awards
  • Children’s Services has been rated by Ofsted as ‘excellent’ – while seven out of nine secondary schools are rated by Ofsted as ‘outstanding’
  • Three new schools have opened in 2011/12, including West London Free School, Hammersmith Academy and Ark Conway primary school
  • Educational attainment is at a record high. H&F has the best ever GCSE results and is the leading borough for the number of pupils going on to top universities. The number of parents choosing H&F schools has doubled since 2006
  • £15 million is being spent next year to create more school places
  • Six of its parks have reached the national Green Flag status
  • 98% of streets are cleaned to the Keep Britain Tidy Standard
  • H&F has three nationally significant regeneration areas capable in the long-term of delivering 23,000 new homes and 62,000 jobs
  • H&F has launched a housing company to build more affordable homes in the borough. Over the first ten years of this programme, the Council expects to deliver 2,880 affordable homes


View a high resolution version of the Budget trends in H&F image» (gif 67KB)

Top of page

» Send us your comments now

I am very happy that you have protected the libraries in the borough. One saving grace. Aside from that, I am appalled by your sell-off of public buildings and the loss of shared community spaces. The Hammersmith Information Centre, community centres, Palingswick House and more are all being sold off. I would rather pay the paltry extra council tax required to fund these essential services. Otherwise there will be little community left to speak of. For all the "Big Society" rhetoric, such choices make it impossible for socially-concerned citizens to organise and do charitable work on the ground. I am part of one local voluntary group now bereft of a meeting place. Any ideas where we can now hold our meetings? We''re a large group so pubs are far too noisy for such a gathering. Private rooms cost £50 to hire. So what do we do? I think your public savings bear a much larger private cost.
From Nicola on 06/02/2012 at 17:42
Can you please explain what the £600,000 budget allocation towards prevention work is? Can you define what you mean by prevention work, and can you give a breakdown of what you''re spending this on?
Many thanks
From @APB1212 on 04/02/2012 at 08:57
Good news for reducing council tax
This was done last year but rent went up by £8.50 per week!!!!!!
Is this going to happen this year??????
WHAT A CON!
I think the nationals should be told the whole picture.
From joy pople on 03/02/2012 at 10:48
Outstanding performance. Well done indeed. Congratulations to all responsible.
From same on 06/01/2012 at 21:08
The Council tax is being reduced at the cost of the residents one example for the last 3 weeks I have been waiting for a bulb for my outside light, when I spoke to the visiting caretaker he said they were out of stock!!!!!! How can this be, are they cutting back so much on the little things to "save money". I''m all for savings but look at the bigger picture please.
From Janet on 05/01/2012 at 10:21
Amyl, you must be joking. H&F is one of the best Councils in London, if not the best. It's not perfect but generally it's very well run and responds to residents' concerns. That's why it's such a desirable and sought after borough to live in. I speak as someone who's lived in H&F for a fair few years now, and have no particular party allegiance so am not biased.
From Laura on 19/12/2011 at 17:17
Where's the detail? Its all very well saying a Band D is so much, but what about everyone else? And you're setting yourself up for a fall by advertising the rate without the Mayor''s precept - come next year everyone will be lambasting you because CT is more than £700 - Just a headline grabbing way of avoiding the ridiculous and painful cuts, and the railroading of planning applications.
Comapared to everywhere else I've lived, this council outdoes itself in the Brassneck stakes.
From AmyI on 13/12/2011 at 16:07
Well done that is good news, now you just have to sort out the parking permit problem in Hammersmith & Fulham, K&C have one permit that covers the whole borough and the parking is much cheaper per hour too.
From Valerie L on 13/12/2011 at 11:07
Well done again! Thank you for your efforts and efficient management. However, why quote RBK&C Council Tax levels including the garden square levies? H&F's level would look even better if compared with RBK&C's level without the levies.
From HilaryP on 12/12/2011 at 19:20
This is brilliant if it is true.
But what can we believe today?
The streets may be cleaner but lots of poor people sleeping in the street...
we could use the Lyric square and any other squares in London in a more efficient way to create jobs for the young in this country and raise the spirit of everyone in such gloomy economic and political climate...
From mireille farjon on 12/12/2011 at 17:34
What a marvellous achievement: Services slashed for the most vulnerable members of the community, the Borough''s heritage sold off, employees, many of whom are local residents, having their pay cut or simply being sacked, sky high rents, developers being allowed to build where and when they want and all to pay for expensive private contractors, rip-off consultants and over-paid chief officers. Oh, and 50p a week of the Council Tax. Wow.
From Bert Schouwenburg on 12/12/2011 at 17:26

Comments

Your comments

Name:*
Display name:*
E-mail:*
Comment:*
 
characters
 
Enter the code shown above:*

                      I accept the terms and conditions of posting to this site*
 

* denotes mandatory field