A 5% tax increase from Coventry City Council is very likely, its leader says

The Labor council must save a further £10m this year if it is to balance its budget.

Duggins said this was helped by the Chancellor’s budget, which included an extra £1.3 billion for local government in 2025-26.

“We are hopeful that we will be in a better position than before,” he said.

But when asked to rule out a maximum council tax increase of 4.99%, he said: “I think it is very likely that we will work from that assumption.

“The government has made it very clear that it expects the authorities to increase council tax by 4.99%.

“We plan based on that.”

On Wednesday, the Prime Minister’s spokeswoman said the council tax threshold “remains the same”.

The threshold for a vote, or referendum, is 5% for councils with social care responsibilities and 3% for councils without.