Council tax is rising across the city region. What are we getting for our money?

Dear readers – A warm welcome to your Monday briefing. We hope you were able to spend some time out and about in the glorious sunshine this weekend – and that you’re able to soak up all the sun you possibly can today before temperatures drop again later this week…

In case you missed it, we ran a few particularly fabulous pieces last week, including David Swift’s fascinating historical essay on some of the social conditions that have led Scousers to be consistently ranked the funniest people in the UK.

We also published a rare interview with the managing director of Peel Waters, James Whittaker, who’s responsible for helping to transform the city’s image via the multi-billion pound plan for Liverpool Waters. Peel has faced a lot of criticism from residents and other major developers alike for taking too long to bring the project to fruition – but Whittaker, for his part, doesn’t understand “why the perception is like that. Maybe because there’s a few people that just don’t like us.”

And who could forget Laurence’s lovely piece in remembrance of Colomendy, the camp that hosted thousands of Liverpool schoolchildren for decades before facing imminent closure. “Very interesting to hear more about this mythical place,” one of you wrote. 

Editor’s note: This edition of the Post is free and unpaywalled, just like our weekend longreads, so please do share it with a friend. We know that not everyone is able to help fund our journalism with a paid membership, but spreading the word about what we’re up to is another much-appreciated way to support us. Do you know anyone on Merseyside who hasn’t signed up yet? Forward them this email and get them on board!

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This year’s Angel Field Festival will feature snooker legend Steve Davis, who’s headlining the festival with his electronic music group, the Utopia Strong. The group was formed in Glastonbury, after which they released their self-titled debut album in 2019. Davis, who dominated the snooker world in the 80s and 90s, has since worked as a radio broadcaster, club DJ and author. The festival, which will feature a range of other performances and workshops, runs from 20th to 27th March, with the Utopia Strong playing at the Capstone Theatre at Liverpool Hope University's creative campus that Friday.

A High Court judge has ruled that over 800 Liverpool fans’ legal claims against Uefa, European football’s governing body, over chaos before the 2022 Champions League final can be heard in England. Thousands of supporters had been penned in, tear-gassed and pepper-sprayed by police; a February 2023 independent report found Uefa bore "primary responsibility" for failures that could have led to a "mass fatality catastrophe". While Uefa argued in a hearing last year that English courts don’t have jurisdiction, Mr Justice Turner sitting in a high court in Liverpool has now ruled otherwise. 

And outgoing trade union boss Mick Lynch has called for Merseyrail to be nationalised. The leader of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) was speaking after confirmation this week that the train operator company could be given the chance to extend its terms beyond 2028, when its contract is set to expire. The company has run the region’s trains since 2003, when it was known as Merseyrail Electrics — a joint venture of Serco and Abellio. But Lynch said re-privatising the service would constitute a "betrayal" of passengers. Merseyrail has been subject to much recent criticism over delays, train breakdowns, and even entire suspensions in service. "Since the contract has started in 2003, an eye-watering £212m in dividends has been fleeced off in profits, money that could have been spent cutting fares and improving services, as well as insourcing outsourced contracts,” said Lynch, who announced his resignation as RMT general secretary in January, will be replaced by his deputy Eddie Dempsey. The Liverpool City Region Combined Authority said an extension proposal has been received from Merseyrail but that "all options are being explored" about the future of the rail service. (Read our story on chaos at Merseyrail from earlier this year here.) 

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Councils across the city region are raising council tax by the maximum amount allowed. What are we getting for our money?

Context: One summer’s day in 1381, Simon of Sudbury – the Archbishop of Canterbury and the King’s Lord Chancellor – was saying mass in the Tower of London when an unruly mob stormed into the chapel, dragged the priest and hapless economist from the pulpit, lugged him to Tower Hill, and beheaded him with unprofessional zest. What was Sudbury’s capital crime? Raising the already unpopular and regressive poll tax to one shilling and four groats. (If you ever find yourself in southwest Suffolk, you can still go see the unfortunate man’s skull on display.)

Over six hundred years on, Margaret Thatcher’s Tory government also tried implementing a poll tax. Though she and her chancellor kept their heads, violent clashes between police and protesters in the streets followed, and the prime minister left office eight months later.

What replaced Thatcher’s “community charge” was council tax. While not quite as unpopular, more than 30 years on from its introduction, council tax remains one of the country’s most regressive levies. Ostensibly paying for schools, policing, libraries, and social care, its infamous “bands” were calculated by a complicated formula few can make sense of. To quote an extreme example from The Economist last year, “Buckingham Palace, valued at around £1bn, sits in band H and is charged £1,828 by Westminster City Council, less than an average three-bedroom semi in Blackpool.”

In recent weeks, across Merseyside, local authorities have voted to increase council tax on their constituents by the maximum percentage allowed by central government. Soon, residents of Wirral, Liverpool, Sefton, St Helens, and Knowsley councils will all be paying 4.99% more than they were already.

All councils will have their reasons. Wirral’s budget deficit meant it required a government bailout to save it from bankruptcy. Jayne Lonergan, Knowsley’s cabinet member for resources, cited financial pressures and the need to continue financing essential services, with an increasing proportion of the borough's finances spent in social care. In February, Sefton Council said it’s financially “exposed” for the 2024/25 fiscal year, expecting an overspend of almost £20 million. Martin Bond, St Helens’ cabinet member for finance and governance, said the hike was necessary to “keep the wolf from the door.”

As we explored in our recent story about the meltdown inside the severely cash-strapped Wirral Council, by the end of the Conservatives’ austerity-defined 2010-2024 tenure, severe and sustained cuts meant it was possible to speak of an “existential threat to local government”. The Local Government Association has said that 1 in 4 councils are likely to need emergency government support. And as health equity researcher Sir Michael Marmot posted on X last year, a Labour government that considers reducing the much more progressive national insurance “in effect, force[s] council tax to rise. Poorer people will then pay for council services rather than richer. Inequality rises. Again.”

Even if local authorities cannot bear the full blame for these budgeting issues, constituents are entitled to ask what they are getting in return for their tax hikes. Liverpool City Council have been bullish, if not celebratory about where money will be allocated, with £15.3 million invested in “the delivery of frontline services for residents”, or an extra £1.5 million “to help tackle issues such as flytipping, street cleansing and blight”. Council leader Liam Robinson called it “the most positive budget we have been able to present for some time”.

But across the Mersey it’s a different story, with the local authority confirming Birkenhead Town Hall will close, libraries could be shut, and 200 council jobs are at risk towards cuts of £25 million. While outgoing council leader Paul Stuart tried to put a brave face on things, citing work on the proposed Hind Street Urban Village or the Floral Pavillion’s box office success, the reality is that residents on the peninsula are going to have to pay more for increasingly reduced services.

If that money was at least going to benefit local services, the bitter pill may be easier to swallow. But John Pugh, councillor for the Dukes ward in Southport, last week raised the issue of “eye watering” amounts of council tax revenue funnelled into the pockets of private equity firms.

"Some of these companies have now been bought up by offshore hedge funds,” Pugh said. “It’s not implausible to suggest that a cash-strapped pensioner in Sefton in paying their council tax is helping to fund a millionaire lifestyle in Barbados." Pugh led his Liberal Democrat party in voting against the 4.99% rise, which will see the average Band C household paying £86 more per year. The council’s leader Marion Atkinson said the rise would allow Sefton to “continue to invest in those services most needed by our residents, including children's social care, adult social care and education”. (Meanwhile, Liverpool’s Lib Dems have condemned Labour’s budget for the city and have requested the council send a delegation to the government to request more funding.) 

Bottom line: While council tax rises are unlikely to result in 1989-esque governmental collapses (or more extreme 1381-esque consequences), constituents of boroughs such as Wirral are likely to feel aggrieved paying more for less. Liverpool City Council’s decision to provide some detail on where the money will be spent is welcome and sets an example to follow. But even there, how long will residents continue to tolerate hikes without commensurate increases in public services? It may be, as The Economist argued in their previously mentioned story, the entire council tax system needs a complete overhaul by central government — by amending the formula that Whitehall uses to distribute funds or revaluing homes to introduce more sensible bands. If the civil contract between government and people is to be maintained, inequality cannot be allowed to worsen unabated. 

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👗Today the Whitechapel Centre is running their popular fill a bag programme upstairs at Leaf on Bold Street: for £12, you’ll be provided with a carrier bag you can fill to the brim with donated clothing. Refresh your spring wardrobe while supporting this vital charity. Advance tickets are currently sold out, but you can still buy them at the door. The shopping sessions will run from 3pm to 5pm and again from 6pm to 8pm. More details here. 

📖On Thursday, award-winning poet Andrew McMillan heads to the independent Reader Bookshop in Calderstones Park to discuss his critically-acclaimed debut novel Pity, published in 2024, described by The Times as “a tale of drag queens and northern miners”. There is also an opportunity for a Q&A and book signing. Get tickets here. 

🦄Calling all Chappell Roan fans: on Friday, the Arts Club is throwing a Pink Pony rave. Tickets are £7 and you get them here.

🎨 On Sunday, St Luke's Bombed Out Church hosts their monthly Makers Market, popping up with over 50 wonderful local artisans and independents. Expect an array of art, craft, food, drink, coffee, music and street food. Dog friendly! Details here.