Wandsworth residents set to continue to pay the lowest average council tax in the country   

Ravi Govindia, Leader of the council (pictured below right), said that the single most important thing it could do for residents was to make sure they continued to get value for money by paying the lowest council tax possible while getting high quality services.

He said: “We are really proud of our decades-long record of making sure that the residents of Wandsworth pay the lowest average council tax and I’m proud to be leading the only London council likely to cut council tax this year.  

“I know the impact that the pandemic has had on our residents and when you factor in the current cost of living difficulties that people are facing, with rising heating and fuel bills, we just couldn’t, as a local council, heap further financial burdens onto people who are already struggling.”     

He added: “Wandsworth is in a unique position to be able to do this because of the way we have managed our finances and budgets over the years. That efficiency is now reaping the benefits for our residents with a net decrease in their council tax bills from April.”   

This week it was reported that around half of London boroughs will be raising council tax by over £70 per household including the GLA increase. On Wednesday at a meeting of the Finance, Resources and Climate Sustainability Overview and Scrutiny Committee, councillors proposed a net one per cent decrease in Wandsworth’s share of council tax.   

This in contrast with the Mayor of London, who is proposing to increase his share of council tax by 8.8 per cent, meaning its precept will rise by £31.93 a year.   

This takes Wandsworth’s overall average Band D council tax bill for the entire year to £872.55 - of which £395.59 is payable to the Mayor.   

The report will now be considered at the next Executive meeting on February 28th, before going onto to the full council meeting on March 9.   

Cabinet member for finance, corporate resources and climate sustainability ouncillor Kim Caddy, said: “Low council tax is synonymous with Wandsworth because of the efforts this council goes to in looking after its money properly and most importantly of all looking out for our residents. We hope that these proposals will really help make a difference and help residents keep their household costs down as we all continue to emerge from the pandemic.”