This includes North Northamptonshire, West Northamptonshire and Leicestershire county councils.<\/p>\n
In addition, a 5% council tax rise has not been ruled out by leaders at Reform-led Lancashire and Kent county councils,<\/a> as well as in Warwickshire<\/a>.<\/p>\n Local authorities are due to approve council tax proposals in late February or early March. In December, the government published its funding plans for local authorities, which assumed most would raise council tax by the maximum amount.<\/p>\n The increase in council tax in Derbyshire is expected to raise about \u00a329m this financial year and will coincide with a new round of cuts worth \u00a322m, according to its budget saving proposals.<\/p>\n The savings do not appear to include significant job cuts, despite council leader, Alan Graves, pledging to do so after claiming the local authority was 20% overstaffed.<\/p>\n The budget proposals report blames inflation, rising demand and the government\u2019s new local government funding formula as having contributed to budgetary pressures.<\/p>\n It states the council \u201cbeing a rural shire county has suffered as a result of the reforms\u201d and in order to \u201cmaintain funding levels there will be a need to set increases in council tax at the maximum permitted level\u201d.<\/p>\n The proposed increase in council tax has attracted criticism from opposition councillors in Derbyshire who accuse the party of \u201cempty rhetoric\u201d.<\/p>\n Conservative opposition leader, Alex Dale, said: \u201cIt is now painfully clear that Reform\u2019s promise to \u2018cut your taxes\u2019, plastered across leaflets and campaign material right across the county in last year\u2019s elections, was nothing more than empty rhetoric.<\/p>\n \u201cResidents were sold a simple slogan, but the reality is that those promises were as worthless as the paper they were printed on.\u201d<\/p>\n Gez Kinsella, the leader of the Green group at the council, said the party had promised to \u201ccut taxes and improve services\u201d, adding: \u201cReform\u2019s \u2018moon on a stick\u2019 promises are turning out to be as true as the previous Conservative administration fantasy economics.\u201d<\/p>\n Kinsella shared leaflets and letters she said Reform had distributed in Derbyshire before the local elections which pledged to \u201ccut your taxes\u201d and criticised rising council tax bills amid cuts to services.<\/p>\n In March this year, Derbyshire councillor Martin Bromley also posted an image on Facebook which included the statement: \u201cSay no to Labour \u2026 say no to increased council tax.\u201d<\/p>\n Reform UK said it never promised to freeze or reduce council tax during the election campaign and any pledges to reduce taxes were in relation to national policy.<\/p>\n Similar criticisms have also been raised at other Reform-led councils.<\/p>\n Leicestershire county council leader, Dan Harrison, declared the party would be able to \u201ccut council tax\u201d after the May local elections. However, just six months later, Harrison conceded that, although \u201ca council tax freeze is our aspiration \u2026 conditions are unlikely to allow this for next year\u201d.<\/p>\n Reform took control of 10 local authorities and became the largest party in three others in May, with the party\u2019s leader, Nigel Farage, promising to tackle \u201cwasteful\u201d spending as well as scrap net zero and diversity and inclusion initiatives.<\/p>\n Councils are legally required to ensure a balanced budget. The proposals put forward by Derbyshire council of an \u00a3838m budget for the upcoming year is about \u00a338m below what the authority said it needs.<\/p>\n Like the previous Conservative administration, Reform will have to rely on part of the authority\u2019s reserves to support \u201congoing budget pressures,\u201d a move it acknowledges is \u201cnot financially sustainable\u201d.<\/p>\n The plans are expected to be considered by the council in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n The cabinet member for council efficiency (Doge) at Derbyshire county council, John Lawson, said in response that next year\u2019s council tax increase was still under review.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is still work to do as we look at the numbers across the board. No decisions have been made as yet, and a final proposal will be put to cabinet to discuss at its meeting on 29 January,\u201d he said<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Reform-led local authority has confirmed it is planning to increase council tax by the maximum allowed amount,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":353823,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-353822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=353822"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353822\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/353823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=353822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=353822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=353822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1717.jpg\")
\u2018Suck it up\u2019: Exclusive footage reveals tensions inside Reform UK council \u2013 video<\/p>\n