REPORT TO PARISH, BRANTHAM WARD 

FEBRUARY 2024

Babergh District Councillor Alastair McCraw

FOLLOW THE MONEY.

A recent report of mine examined some of the importance of Local Government, and its close relationship to our daily lives. That importance comes at a cost. With the overall UK tax burden at the highest level since the 1950's I thought I'd take a closer look.

Originally, I intended to break down exactly where the UK tax burden lies and see if we could assign some relative costs. I found two things. It was 1) quite boring, if eye opening. 2) It was very depressing. Taxes also vary widely for individuals and households. I needed to simplify but remain accurate or you'd be switching off.

The total public sector (all taxes at all levels) raised £1,027 billion in 2022/23 (House of Commons Library). It's higher now, but it's the most recent starting point available. £428 billion came from Income Tax and National Insurance, by far the biggest chunk. Now an average income of £30,000 pa would mean that an individual would pay £105 for these per week. I'm using weekly figures here for a fair comparison later.

VAT formed the next big slice at £162 billion. Nearly all VAT is passed on to us, the consumer, through the prices of goods and services. It's impossible to figure a weekly cost to you of VAT. Imagine up to 20% of what you spend on bills and shopping. I veryroughly calculate somewhere around £30-40 per week, allowing for zero and 5% rates. (An interesting aside, when energy costs double or treble, so does the total VAT raised, even at 5%. Every time energy costs go up, if you listen carefully, you can hear a tiny 'ker-ching' in the Treasury).

Business taxes (155 billion) like Corporation Tax, Capital taxes and Business Rates don't affect most of us directly, but a proportion of these will come our way as businesses seek to recover their costs through their prices to us. It's totally impossible to give a weekly cost though. The same is true of other government receipts and taxes which totalled a whopping £191 billion.These will include the bits we never notice, like Vehicle Excise Duty or Insurance Premium Taxes. There are a host of these taxes, mostly hidden, all over the place in licences and similar.

Here's an interesting one. Fuel Tax is 58p/litre, that's £5.80 for every 10 litres. A litre might take you 7-9 miles on average. That, or double, could easily be a weekly cost in rural areas. This raised £25 billion a year.

The 'Sin' taxes, the duties for Tobacco and alcohol raised £22 billion. These are very much a matter of personal choice. For some of us, it's a lot per week. For others nothing. No comment from me.

COUNCIL TAX.

The last slice I want to talk about, I have the most experience of. Council Tax was then £42 billion (4% of the total burden nationally). I've been tracking the local breakdown of our Council Tax for many years. My method has always been to work out a weekly cost. (I remember being paid weekly). My figures are for a Band D property here in Brantham. Our average is something like C plus. Band C itself would be 11% less. Council Tax is split as below, though collected through Babergh. Suffolk County Council got 75%, that's £28.78 weekly. The Police precept (13%) was about £5 a week. Babergh's (9%) worked out at £3.50 a week. Finally, Brantham had 3%, for £1.14/week. The towns and parishes are the only difference across the District. Sudbury, with more services, had a weekly precept of £3.34/week. Now remember, these are per household, not per individual like some other taxes. The total is £38.49/week.

I was elected to serve Brantham within Babergh, so those are the only areas where I would address Value here. I count 35 distinct services supplied by Babergh, in 7 main areas. They range from Waste Collection through Planning, Environmental Health, Housing and so on. There's a list on my Facebook group. In total, all of those cost a very reasonable £3.50 a week. I can't buy a pint for that! Compared to so much else of the tax burden, I would argue that that is incredible value. The upcoming budgets will see a small rise, less than current inflation; and not the recent much higher inflation we have already experienced. My aim here is to provide a little perspective fairly.

As always, I'm still around and about. Have a look at the website for updates. Contact me with anything important by phone and email primarily. I'll always work to respond quickly. Or if you see one of the bike stable, wave or look for me nearby. I'm always happy to talk and help. 

Gov.uk. / Babergh.gov.uk. / 0300 123 4000 / Suffolk.gov.uk/ tendringdc.gov.uk

Brantham Video:  YouTube: Search for Alastair McCraw Brantham.

Alastair McCraw. 07812 564188 (or 07548 154296) [email protected]

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