Residents asked to have their say in Council Tax Support consultation
Wednesday, 26 November 2025
We've launched a consultation our Local Council Tax Support (LCTS) scheme for working-age claimants.
The scheme helps working age residents on low incomes by reducing the amount of Council Tax they need to pay. Under the current scheme, 9,371 households receive support and 7,141 of these receive 100% support – meaning they pay no Council Tax at all. This has increased from 5,340 claimants in 2022/23. The cost of providing this support is £14 million per year, and with demand increasing, the cost is rising.
We're consulting on reducing the amount of support, which would mean working-age claimants would receive less support and would be required to pay more than they do now. Pensioners would be unaffected by the proposed changes.
The government is about to implement a major change to local authority funding known as the Fair Funding Review. In this, we've been told to expect a reduction in funding of £24 million for the first year alone. This means we're forced to consider discretionary discounts hence the consultation on the Council Tax scheme. So, we're consulting on changes to the scheme which could reduce the overall cost of the scheme by £3.4 million, with ourshare of this saving being £2.9 million.
The consultation – which opens today, Wednesday 26 November – gives residents the opportunity to share their views on proposed changes to the scheme before a decision is made.
Find out more and have your say.
Alongside the scheme, we provide a range of other financial support for residents in hardship, including discretionary housing payments, exceptional hardship payments, and various welfare support schemes. We also offer practical assistance to help people back into employment, working with local employers to create training and apprenticeship opportunities. There are no plans at present to reduce these schemes.
Councillor John Baker, our Executive Member for Finance, said:
We fully understand that any proposal to reduce Council Tax discounts will cause concern to those in receipt of them, and we do not bring these options forward lightly. Almost two-thirds of our entire budget is spent on vital services such as adult social care and children’s services, where both costs and demand continue to rise sharply. That means the rest of our funding is hugely stretched.
On top of that, the government’s proposed Fair Funding arrangements represent a significant challenge for us – they leave us with no choice but to look very carefully at all areas of spending, including the Local Council Tax Support Scheme, so we can continue to fund the ever-increasing costs of providing essential statutory services to everyone.
The £14 million cost of this scheme is currently funded by those who pay Council Tax; it is not covered by a government grant. The 100% Council Tax discount has already been abolished (aside from exceptional cases) in both Milton Keynes and Luton.
We are asking residents to share their views so we can take informed decisions and strike the right balance between supporting lower households and safeguarding the critical services our communities rely on every day.