Olympics Fear for Council tax

Calls for guarantees tax bills will not pay for costoverruns

Culture secretary Tessa Jowell told MPs earlier this month that in just 15 months the cost of building the main venues had soared by 40 per cent (£900 million) to £3.3 billion.

Despite the admission the Mayor of London Ken Livingstone predicted the Games would make a profit.

The original estimates put Londoners’ share of the costs at around £625m.  This works out at an average £20 extra in council tax for a Band D household spread over an 11 year period.  

Wandsworth deputy leader Maurice Heaster warned that costs could rise still further. He said, “With the Mayor’s record for controlling spending there is only one way this bill can go. If the Government wants to play fair by Londoners then it should cap the council tax surcharge now. In Wandsworth our total government grant which has to pay for these and other vital services is actually being cut in real terms each year. The scenario for Wandsworth and many other London council is one of rising costs and rising tax bills. We do not need an extra Olympic tax on top of all this.”

The council warned last week that the growing level of demand for adult care services was not sustainable without a new commitment from central government to meeting the costs. For its main services Wandsworth will only receive a grant increase of 2.7 per cent in the coming year. This compares with 3.8 per cent for the rest of the country and an inflation rate of 3.6 per cent.

Pressures on local services are set to grow in future years as London’s population increases. In the early 1990s there were around 250,000 people in the borough. Today’s figure is around 285,000. The Office for National Statistics forecasts numbers continuing to rise to 344,000 in 2029.

November 30, 2006