Warwickshire County Council
Council Tax setting and spending
Warwickshire County Council set its budget for 2011/2012 on the 15 February 2011. To fund our budget we have not increased our council tax since last year. Charges for the eight council tax bands A to H in 2011/2012 remain as:
| Band | Charge |
|---|---|
| A | £770.16 |
| B | £898.52 |
| C | £1026.89 |
| D | £1155.25 |
| E | £1411.97 |
| F | £1668.69 |
| G | £1925.41 |
| H | £2310.49 |
Council Tax spending for 2011/2012
In addition to Warwickshire County Council, your total council tax bill will contain council tax elements from each of the following local authorities in your area:
- District and borough councils
- Warwickshire Police Authority
Council Tax spending 2011/2012 (pdf, 2.1Mb) - outline of how Warwickshire County Council and the Warwickshire Police Authority will spend its Council Tax income.
Council tax – property valuation
The level of council tax is related to the value of each property, as assessed by HM Revenue & Customs' Valuation Office Agency. Each home has been assigned to one of eight valuation bands, based on the amount the property would have raised if it had been sold on the open market on 1 April 1991, assuming it was in reasonable state of repair, the property was sold freehold or in the case of a flat a 99 year lease.
Valuation Office Agency - find out your home’s valuation band.
Each band carries a fixed weighting, which determines the relative size of the council tax. The Bands are shown below, with illustrative tax figures based on our part of 2011/2012 Band D tax level of £1,155.25. The District or Borough Councils, Parish Councils and the Police Authority also set separate charges for their part of the council tax. The average property value in Warwickshire is Band C.
In 2011/2012 our part of the council tax charge will not increase, and will remain at the same level as last year in 2010/2011.
| Band | Valuation at April 1991 | Weighting | Charge £ |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | Up to £40,000 | 6/9 | 770.16 |
| B | £40,001 to £45,000 | 7/9 | 898.52 |
| C | £52,001 to £68,000 | 8/9 | 1026.89 |
| D | £68,000 to £88,000 | 9/9 | 1155.25 |
| E | £88,001 to £120,000 | 11/9 | 1411.97 |
| F | £120,001 to £160,000 | 13/9 | 1668.69 |
| G | £160,001 to £320,000 | 15/9 | 1925.41 |
| H | Over £320,000 | 18/9 | 2310.49 |
Appeals against property banding should be made to the Valuation Office Agency. In the event of disputes, cases are adjudicated by a Valuation Tribunal.
How can you justify large pay increases for staff?
The pay of the vast majority staff, whether teachers, firefighters, or other staff, is the subject of nationally imposed pay settlements. In 2011/2012 there has been a freeze on public sector pay by central government. Overall not many people would accuse public sector workers as being highly paid.
Working more efficiently to reduce your council tax
Warwickshire has a very long track record of requiring services to produce improvements in cost effectiveness. Savings have been a feature of the budget since the late 1980s. For a number of years the target was set at 2½% but in recent years we review this each time the annual budget is set . The only service that is exempt from this process is schools. Under the national scheme of delegating budgets to schools, the Council is prohibited from reducing schools budgets.
In setting the 2011/2012 budget all non school services have been required to make savings over the next three years of up to 30%. Our current savings plan will generate £21.9 million in 2011/2012.
We continually review what we do and how we do it. In 2011/2012, for example, we will still be changing how we buy goods and services, and will be changing the way we deliver services.
Up until 2011/2012 all councils were required by central government to measure and report the value of efficiency savings they had achieved since April 2008. An efficiency saving happens when the cost of an activity falls, but it is still as effective as it was before. The table below shows the value of efficiency we and the Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Authority have achieved by the end of March 2009 and forecast to be achieved by the end of March 2010.
| Organisation | Savings up to March 2009 | Total savings up to March 2010 |
|---|---|---|
| Warwickshire County Council | £10,266,000 | £18,994,000 |
| Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Authority | £113,000 | £453,000 |
The table below shows how much money we and the Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Authority plan to save in 2009/2010 for the average band-D home and compares that number with the average figure for similar authorities across England.
| Organisation | Saving for each band-D home | National average for similar authorities |
|---|---|---|
| Warwickshire County Council | £95 | £98 |
| Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Authority | £2 | £4 |
Up to the election of the coalition government in 2010, councils were assessed each year by the Audit Commission on how they use resources (for example, how they use money, staff and buildings) and given a score out of 4 (4 being ‘significantly exceeds minimum requirements, performs excellently’ and 1 being ‘does not meet minimum requirements, performs poorly’). In our last organisational assessment we ‘performed well’ and scored 3 and Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Authority ‘performed adequately’ and scored 2.
Why is Council Tax rising while services are not improving?
There is a lot of evidence, which is externally validated, that demonstrates that services are actually improving.
For example, the Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA) is carried out by the Audit Commission and looks at how well local authorities deliver services against national standards. A council's performance is graded between 0 and 4 stars, with 4 stars being the highest, and is accompanied by a "direction of travel statement" for which the ratings are "improving strongly", "improving well", "improving adequately", "not improving adequately", and "not improving".
The CPA overall rating is based on a council's:
- use of resources
- work with children and young people
- adult social care
- culture
- fire and rescue
- environment
- corporate capacity to improve services
In our latest assessment on how we use resources (for example, how we use money, staff and buildings) we scored 4 and the Warwickshire Fire Authority scored 2.
From April 2009, a new approach to assessing local public services begins. Replacing the CPA framework, Comprehensive Area Assessment (CAA) will assess how effectively local public services are performing, and how well they are working to meet the needs of local people. CAA will bring together the work of several inspectorates resulting in a joint assessment of the performance of all local public service providers. Further information can be found at the Audit Commission.
Further information on our performance
Alternatively, you can contact:
Planning and Performance Team
performance@warwickshire.gov.uk
01926 41280501926 412805
However, continually improving all our services is not easy. Often the demand for services is growing faster than the budget needed to maintain the level of service to a growing customer base. Also it is a matter of which services are the highest priority.
Why should I pay for the pension of County Council employees?
The various public sector pension schemes are nationally imposed schemes and not at the discretion of individual councils. However, in line with private sector pension schemes the cost of public sector schemes have been reviewed in light of the question of affordability, and new rules relating to the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) that affects the majority of our office employees were introduced on 1 April 2008. Further changes are likely following the 'Hutton report' that was published on 10 March 2011.
Unlike some pension schemes, all of the schemes in operation at the County Council require the employee to contribute into the scheme. The pension is part of the overall remuneration package.
