Ipswich Borough Council

COUNCIL TAX INFORMATION 2020/21

Message from Councillor David Ellesmere, Leader, Ipswich Borough Council:

Ipswich Borough Council will continue to provide a wide range of quality services to the people of Ipswich despite the threat of major cuts in government funding.

We are currently predicting that the Government will cut the amount of money it gives to Ipswich by £6m over the next four years. If the Government continues to cut the council’s funding at this rate it will be impossible to protect all council services in the future.

However, due to our approach of finding innovative ways of making savings and increasing income – for example by investing in commercial property – we do not anticipate the need to make any significant cuts to frontline services over the coming year.

This means that brown bin collections will remain free of charge unlike everywhere else in Suffolk. We will keep the free summer iCard for young people and continue to support bus services in Ipswich. We will maintain our ambitious council house building programme and we will not cut funding to community organisations such as Citizens Advice.

We will continue to provide events in Ipswich such as Music Day and the Maritime Festival. The council’s skills in putting on these large scale events enabled us to bring the Ed Sheeran concerts to Chantry Park and ensure they ran smoothly.

We also plan to make a number of investments over the coming year in new electric vehicles, home insulation and solar panels which will both save money and reduce carbon emissions.

We will take forward plans to regenerate Princes Street and the entrance to the Waterfront at Stoke Bridge. We will also bring forward plans to improve Arras Square in the town centre.

We will always try to keep your council tax bills as low as possible.

Ipswich’s increase in council tax of 11p a week for most residents forms only a small part of the increase you will see in your bill this year.

In contrast, Suffolk County Council are increasing their share of bills by 77p a week and the Police & Crime Commissioner by 15p a week for most residents.

Find out more at: www.ipswich.gov.uk/council-tax £133.7m in2019/20. will increase to£143.82m in2020/21 from increase. 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