after long freeze leaves services struggling

An overwhelming majority of town halls in England and Wales plan to increase council tax next year for the first time since the Coalition government promised to freeze the local levy. Town halls said they would be doing so in order to cope with increased demand for services and the impact of spending cuts. Research carried out by the Local Government Chronicle suggests that 75 per cent of county councils will bring in the increase, despite financial incentives from the Government to freeze the local levy. A one-year freeze in council tax was a Conservative party election promise in 2010 and was extended by the Chancellor George Osborne despite cuts in local authority budgets, which critics argued threatened local services.....Read more HERE