Town council agree £1.47pa tax increase and lock prices for services

At the February Biddulph Town Council meeting, Councillors approved an increase in the precept to £370,365.00.

The Town Council needs £8,150.00 extra in 2021-22 to continue to provide good quality services; this is an increase of £1.47 per household, per year (Band D equivalent).

Following a challenging year for all residents of Biddulph, the Town Council took the decision not to increase any fees chargeable for services provided in 2021-22. In addition, the Town Council has an ambitious programme of improvements for new assets and projects, but will use Earmarked Reserves to deliver the majority of these developments.

The hope is that the burden on the taxpayer will not be too onerous as the community returns to some sort of normality; however, Councillors remain committed to delivering improvements and high quality services across the town.

The Town Council is operating in an environment where it no longer receives a support grant to supplement the precept request and has a lower tax base (Band D equivalent) in 2021-22.

The Chair of the Finance Strategy and Management Committee, Councillor Tony Hall, said: ‘Councillors were united in their decision to find a balance between delivering excellent services, increasing and enhancing the services that are provided in the town and ensuring that the tax payer does not have to find significant additional resources in order to fund this work. This is a challenging time for us all, but we hope that during 2021 residents of Biddulph will be able to return to some sort of normality, and Biddulph Town Council will be working proactively to support them.’