Residents in parts of Lancashire are set to experience the slowest rise in council tax for more than a decade, under proposals from Reform UK-led Lancashire County Council. From April, bills could increase by 3.8% in areas covered by the council.
For a typical Band D property, this would mean an additional £62.83 annually, bringing the total to £1,716.12. Council leader Stephen Atkinson described the increase as “the lowest rise in 12 years,” while opposition councillors warned that the rise would still put pressure on working households.
The council has been allocated £310 million by the government over the next three years under its “fair funding” review. Although the government allowed an uplift of up to 4.99% without holding a local referendum, Atkinson proposed a smaller increase, stating that it would not affect the funding settlement.
Atkinson explained that the council plans to make £65 million in savings and efficiencies while maintaining frontline services. He said: “It’s about relentless focus on the residents and some of that stuff that we used to do we no longer do. I’ll give you an example: net zero. We used to spend over £100,000 a year assessing tenders for if they were net zero compliant. That’s gone.”
The council plans to achieve further efficiencies by adopting AI and working smarter, aiming to increase productivity and free up staff to focus on core services. Atkinson said the approach would deliver cost savings of around £8 million per year.
However, the opposition has criticised the proposals. Independent councillor Azhar Ali said: “What the Reform administration have done is they’ve just raised council tax by a whopping 3.8%- that’s a massive hit for the people of Lancashire. There’s a cost-of-living crisis and people struggling and Reform have just broken their one big promise that they made which was to not increase council tax. I think people will be really disillusioned and angry that they were promised the earth and they delivered dust.”
The budget proposals will be formally scrutinised next week before final approval.
