Your guide to Council Tax 2021 - 2022 Contents Your guide to Council Tax 2021 – 2022 Your guide to Council 2 This is a guide to Council Tax for the year April 2021 to March Tax 2022. It explains how the money you pay contributes towards What is Council Tax? 2 hundreds of services delivered by Stoke-on-Trent City Council, the Staffordshire Commissioner, the Office of the Police and Foreword 3 Crime Commissioner and the Fire and Rescue Authority. As well Where our money 4 as detailing how your money is spent, it also provides information comes from about discounts, exemptions and support available to help you pay How Council Tax 5 your bill. is calculated Council Tax charges 6 What is Council Tax? for 2021-22 What you will pay 7 Council Tax is paid by every occupier or owner of a domestic this year property in the city and helps to finance a wide range of public services, such as social care, refuse collection, libraries and How spending 10 highways maintenance. has changed How we spend 10 The money raised is used to make up the difference between the your money funding we get from Government and the money we need to supply Stronger Together 14 all the services the residents of Stoke-on-Trent need. By paying How to pay your 16 your Council Tax regularly and on time, you help to provide a range Council Tax of services for your local community. Managing your 17 Council Tax online Tell us if you need this information in an Discounts and 20 exemptions alternative format Help if you’re struggling 23 to pay your Council Tax Changes in your 24 circumstances Universal Credit 26 What happens if 27 you do not pay The Environment 29 Agency Levy Useful contacts 30 2 your guide to Councilyour Tax guide to Council Tax Stoke-on-Trent; one of the fastest growing cities in the UK Stoke-on-Trent is 256,400 people living in 118,854 households provided with more than 700 services by Stoke-on-Trent City Council We work hard to help look after neighbourhoods and improve people’s lives in everything we do. Our ambition is for the city to be the best it can be for everyone who lives, works, does business and visits here. We are on an exciting transformation journey that will put Stoke-on-Trent amongst the most innovative and effective local authorities in the country, radically reshaping our services to achieve higher quality, deliver greater value for money and become more responsive. By 2024 we will be a truly flexible, seven-day council, using advances in digital service delivery and the best customer care to meet the needs of our residents and businesses. We take every opportunity to find efficiencies and increased productivity in the way we deliver services and maximise the amount that goes to front-line services. This is a year-round effort. We also take a prudent approach to how we invest capital to ensure that any investments will improve our service offer or support regeneration and growth, and always with a focus on quality and value- for-money. For 2021-22 we are increasing council tax by 4.99%, which will be used to meet rising demands for adults and children’s social care – allowing us to continue to protect the city’s most vulnerable people. 3.00% will go to directly pay for adult social care and 1.99% general increase targeted to support vulnerable families and people in Stoke-on-Trent. For most residents, a 4.99% increase in council tax is an extra 87p per week or £45.16 for the year. your guide to Council Tax 3 Where our money comes from The money that the city council collects from Council Tax is only a small proportion of income we get to run services, with a proportion of funding coming from Central Government in the form of grants. The pie chart and table shows where our funding comes from. ‘Other grants’ includes both general and specific grants, and ‘income’ includes income from areas such as local business rates, licensing, parking charges and other fees and charges. Our total revenue expenditure for this year is £657.7m million. However £418.4 million of this is allocated to specific areas such as benefits, schools and housing; it cannot be used to pay for the day-to- day running of general council services, such as waste collection and disposal or maintaining the city’s highways. This means our total net budget is £239.3 million. You can see how this adds up to pay for our gross expenditure below. 2020-21 2021-22 Total Net Budget £229.2m £239.3m Funded from Revenue Support Grant £23.4m £23.5m Business Rates income £78.3m £74.7m Collection fund balances £0.1m £0.8m Ringfenced grants £14.9m £14.9m COVID-19 Funding 2021/22 - £11.2m Non-ringfenced grants £18.7m £21.0m Council Tax £90.3m £90.5m Underspend in 2020/21 to support budget in 2021/22 - £1.0m Capital receipts £3.5m £1.7m Total Net Budget £229.2m £239.3m Other sources of allocated income School funding (excluding academies) £45.1m £34.1m Housing rents £65.6m £65.8m Other Housing Revenue Account income £1.4m £1.4m Service specific grants £165.0m £153.7m Other income £171.3m £163.4m Our total revenue expenditure £677.6m £657.7m 4 your guide to Council Tax How Band D Council Tax is calculated Proportion Band Values of Band D A Up to £40,000 6/9 B £40,001 - £52,000 7/9 C £52,001 - £68,000 8/9 D £68,001 - £88,000 9/9 i E £88,001 - £120,000 11/9 93% of F £120,001 - £160,000 13/9 properties in G £160,001 - 320,000 15/9 Stoke-on-Trent are in bands H Over £320,000 18/9 A-C Each domestic property is put into one of eight Council Tax bands (A to H) depending on its value on the open market on 1 April 1991. Your Council Tax bill tells you which band your home is in and how much you need to pay. This is set by the listing officer at the Valuation Office Agency, which is part of HM Revenues and Customs, completely independent from the city council. We calculate how much we need and then divide that amount by the number of properties in the area. The result is the amount of Council Tax payable for the average home in band D. Council Tax for the other bands are a proportion of band D. How to appeal Stoke-on-Trent City Council does not decide which band your home is in. You can challenge your Council Tax band if you think it’s wrong, but you should continue to pay your Council Tax bill while you do this. If you win your appeal, we will change your bill and give you back what you have overpaid. For further information, including how you can appeal if you think your property valuation band is wrong, please contact the Valuation Office Agency. Tel: 03000 501501 web: www.gov.uk/contact-voa your guide to Council Tax 5 Council Tax charges for 2021 – 2022 In 2021-22, Stoke-on-Trent City Council has a council tax requirement of £90.5 million This is how much money we need to raise in order to deliver hundreds of services across the city. This year, a band D council taxpayer in Stoke-on-Trent will be charged: + + = Band D property will £1,425.46 £238.57 £78.78 pay in total 4.99% 5.99% 1.99% £1,742.81 increase increase increase In the Spending Review the government announced an adult social care precept of up to 3% on top of the core referendum principle of 2%, meaning that a total increase of 5% or above would be deemed excessive. Having considered the above and the impact on local taxpayers, it is proposed that council tax will increase by 4.99% which includes 3% adult social care precept and a 1.99% general increase which, as in previous years, will be directed towards supporting the most vulnerable within the city. Statement concerning adult social care funding The Secretary of State made an offer to adult social care authorities. (“Adult social care authorities” are local authorities which have functions under Part 1 of the Care Act 2014, namely county councils in England, district councils for an area in England for which there is no county council, London borough councils, the Common Council of the City of London and the Council of the Isles of Scilly.) The offer was the option of an adult social care authority being able to charge an additional “precept” on its council tax without holding a referendum, to assist the authority in meeting its expenditure on adult social care from the financial year 2016-17. It was originally made in respect of the financial years up to and including 2019-20. If the Secretary of State chooses to renew this offer in respect of a particular financial year, this is subject to the approval of the House of Commons. The Spending Review on 4 September 2019 announced an Adult Social Care precept of up to 2% for 2020/21. A further precept of up to 3% for 2021/22 was announced in the Spending Review on 25 November 2020. 6 your guide to Council Tax What you will pay this year Not all Council Tax collected pays for council services; it also supports the Staffordshire Commissioner, the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner and the Fire and Rescue Authority.