{"id":774271,"date":"2026-09-18T03:06:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T03:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/774271\/"},"modified":"2026-09-18T03:06:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T03:06:09","slug":"badenoch-brings-in-lawyers-after-94-wandsworth-council-tax-hike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/774271\/","title":{"rendered":"Badenoch brings in lawyers after 94% Wandsworth Council tax hike"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pressed by presenter Matt Chorley on how the rise will still mean Wandsworth’s council tax is lower than many councils<\/a> across the country, Badenoch said it would still worry some families.<\/p>\n

“I think if you suddenly have a nearly 100% increase in your council tax, you would be extremely worried. Families have budgets,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Just because on average it’s lower than somewhere else doesn’t mean that people are going to be able to afford it.”<\/p>\n

She refused to say what alternative rate of increase she would propose, but questioned why a 40% cut was being imposed on the council when “Andy Burnham has not found 40% of anything to cut” himself.<\/p>\n

She also defended her record as local government minister when the Tories were in Downing Street, despite Conservative governments having slashed some council grants.<\/p>\n

Changes to the funding formula for councils under the Fair Funding Review 2.0, will see money redistributed from some council areas to others.<\/p>\n

After deciding to reduce their share of central government funding, the government gave five London boroughs – Kensington & Chelsea, Westminster, Wandsworth, Hammersmith & Fulham and the City of London – and Windsor and Maidenhead Council in Berkshire the power to raise council tax above the usual 5% cap for two years.<\/p>\n

The London councils Kensington & Chelsea, Westminster and Hammersmith & Fulham are considering joining Wandsworth in using the Sustainable Communities Act to challenge the cuts.<\/p>\n

Wandsworth Council’s Tory deputy leader said on Tuesday: “Higher council tax will not be easy or welcome. We do not regard it as fair and will continue to challenge the government by every possible means.”<\/p>\n

Leader of the opposition, Labour councillor Simon Hogg, said: “It’s outrageous, it is stunning. People who don’t know how to run the council panicking and making you pay the price.<\/p>\n

“This increase is unfair, it’s unnecessary and we oppose it.”<\/p>\n

However, the PoliticsHome website reported, external<\/a> that three Labour MPs in Wandsworth – Rosena Allin-Khan, Fleur Anderson and Marsha de Cordova – have refused to back the council’s appeal to the government to stop the funding cuts.<\/p>\n

The three Labour MPs claimed the council “was in a strong financial position” before the Tories took over at the May elections earlier this year.<\/p>\n

In a statement when the council tax rise was announced, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said: “Local authorities decide the level of council tax they wish to set, but we are clear that in doing so they should put taxpayers first.<\/p>\n

“We’re fixing an outdated funding system so funding goes where need is greatest, while protecting councils through the transition and ensuring no area faces a cliff edge.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pressed by presenter Matt Chorley on how the rise will still mean Wandsworth’s council tax is lower than…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":774272,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-774271","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\/774271","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=774271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/774271\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/774272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=774271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=774271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=774271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}