A councillor has given his thoughts on the rise in council tax and explained why it has happened.

Nathan Ley, county councillor for Abingdon North, took to social media this week saying: “I can’t be the only one who had the dreaded council tax bill come through the post recently.

“Seeing the various taxes go up again is hard, especially this time of year.

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“I feel the pain, but so does everyone else, especially those on lower incomes, given that council tax is a regressive tax.”

Mr Ley went on to explain why council tax generally increases year after year.

He said: “Grants from government used to be the main funding source.

“The government has taken that back in a big way, meaning incremental council tax rises have to partially fill the gap, albeit, no way near enough to make up the gap.

“It goes a bit like this: central government defunds local councils, then local councils have to make lots of service cuts and raise council tax.

“People then get frustrated, understandably, and direct their anger towards local councils instead of the government.”

Mr Ley then said he wasn’t expecting people to be happy about how local government is funded, but that he hopes everyone understands what’s going on.

He added that he is happy to try and answer questions or point people in the right direction.

 

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This story was written by Matthew Norman, he joined the team in 2022 as a Facebook community reporter.

Matthew covers Bicester and focuses on finding stories from diverse communities.

Get in touch with him by emailing: Matthew.norman@newsquest.co.uk

Follow him on Twitter: @OxMailMattN1