Council tax bills set to increase by 4% in Flintshire on Friday

Council tax bills are set to increase for nearly 68,000 households in Flintshire on Friday.

Councillors in Flintshire approved a four per cent rise in February, the rise comes at the same time as a huge hike in energy costs.

Households will see the biggest rise in the cost of energy in living memory from Friday, when bills increase by 54% – almost £700 – to just under £2,000 a year.

The energy price cap for those on default tariffs who pay by direct debit is rising by £693 from £1,277 to £1,971 from April 1.

Prepayment customers will see a bigger jump, with their price cap going up by £708, from £1,309 to £2,017.

Energy regulator Ofgem was forced to increase the energy price cap to a record £1,971 for a typical household, as global gas prices soared.

Council tax

Average band D council tax for Wales for 2022-23 is £1,777, this includes £1,433 for county councils, £304 for police and £40 for community councils.

Band D figures for billing authorities, including police and community councils, vary from £1,573 in Caerphilly to £2,099 in Blaenau Gwent.

Pembrokeshire has the largest overall band D percentage increase of 5.0%. Bridgend has the smallest overall band D percentage increase of 0.7%.

In Flintshire, the Band D figure, including police (£317) and community councils (£49) is £,1725 slightly below the Wales average.

Householders in the county now face an average annual uplift of £68 in their council tax bills for the new financial year.

In cash terms, Flintshire’s rise is the second highest in Wales behind Pembrokeshire at £75.

For comparison – In England, the estimated Band D percentage increase is 3.5%, where the latest estimated average is in the region of £1,965.

The council’s provisional funding from the Welsh Government to deliver frontline services in 2022/23 stands at £232m, which represents an annual increase of 9.2 per cent.

The figure is below the average uplift of 9.4 per cent for all Welsh local authorities and places Flintshire third from bottom of the 22 areas in terms of the amount it receives per person living in the county.

During a budget setting council meeting in February, Chief executive Neal Cockerton said having to fund pay awards could cause “considerable pain” to the council’s finances.

But he warned that using reserves was not the answer after describing the suggestion as “completely and utterly irresponsible”.

He said: “Don’t go there. We will and do need financial resilience in this council and we won’t get it through reducing council tax to the levels that are being suggested.

“It would be extremely challenging, certainly in the current situation.

“The greatest challenges are around pay awards, and we will not have a great deal of control around those pay awards.

“My advice as your chief executive is that we do not move down that route as it would be completely and utterly irresponsible.”