Councils sign up to Eric Pickles' big tax freeze
Eric Pickles is offering local authorities incentives to freeze their council tax
You don't need me to tell you that our local authorities are concerned about a shortage of money over the next few years..
Scarcely a day goes past without another council announcing an eye-watering amount of cuts.
So you might expect they would be keen to raise council tax to net some badly-needed extra money.
But actually a growing army of our local authorities are saying they will be freezing their council tax this year.
In Cumbria, most people will see their bill hold steady from April.
That is because five of the districts - , , Copeland, Eden and South Lakeland - and the county council have indicated they will freeze the tax.
It is possible that the bill will still rise if the county's police authority puts up its demand, but that is unlikely to add much to the bill even if it happens as it is the smallest part of it.
Other councils are following suit.
Durham County Council and are freezing, and Harrogate and Scarborough are also amongst the 130 local authorities who have committed to stand still.
So why do that when you are short of money?
Firstly, there is a government incentive.
The Coalition is keen on freezing council tax so is .
That means any local authority thinking of a rise of 2.5% or less might as well freeze and take the money from the Government rather than the local taxpayer.
In any case, any council will struggle to raise much more than that as the Communities Secretary Eric Pickles has said he will cap any council proposing a tax rise of more than 3.5%.
So councils might as well agree to a freeze, and at least get some credit from the local council taxpayer for not putting up the bill even if services are being cut.
And councillors may be particularly keen if they are amongst the large number who are up for re-election this May.
It is almost a complete reverse of the early years of the Labour government, when the range of council sevices expanded alongside some big council tax increases.
We will have to wait and see the impact of the cuts to gauge if people feel the freeze offers them value for money.
I'm Richard Moss, the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳'s Political Editor for the North East and Cumbria. Welcome to my irreverent - but hopefully insightful - northern take on reporting politics for Look North and the Politics Show.
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