This doesn’t sound like anything that was promised to voters in last year’s Local Elections, does it? David Taylor, who represents Redditch East on the Worcestershire County Council, announced that he was quitting Reform on Sunday – and cited their plans to hike council tax as a motivating factor.
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Reform set to hike council tax as local authorities struggle
The local authority is in dire financial straits, and is straddled with over £500 million of debt. Senior leaders are currently debating whether to declare themselves bankrupt, and have already asked central government to provide relief in the form of an Exceptional Financial Support (EFS) grant.
Though the problems started long before Reform rolled into town, the party swept to localised power on the promise of cutting down public expenditure, and some candidates even went as far as to promise council tax reductions during their terms. Two problems, there…
DOGE failure marks first year of Reform in local government
Despite launching to a self-aggrandised fanfare last May, Reform’s so-called ‘DOGE Unit’ – which was first deployed to Kent County Council and intended for launch in other Reform-controlled authorities – has largely failed to find any evidence of ‘wasteful spending’ in local government.
So that was a non-starter, and what’s more, it has effectively smashed even the faintest hope that Reform could find a way to bring down council tax. In fact, the fees are set to rise in almost all of the councils they run – and Worcestershire is now likely to feel the full force of these increases.
Worcestershire councillor quits party over ‘massive upheaval in council tax’
The council has asked the national government for permission to put council tax fees up by 10%. It’s a move that has infuriated David Taylor, who announced his decision to leave Reform during an interview with the BBC, and lashed out at the party for ‘leaving it late’ to declare their position.
“I walked in here today as a Reform county councillor – I won’t be leaving this studio as a Reform county councillor. As from today, I will be an independent. People do not have the money to pay for a massive upheaval in council tax. They will pay more and receive less.”
“I think we could have made decisions sooner and I think leaving it this late in the day to make cuts and to expect people who are already not doing so well… to expect them to pay more council tax, I just don’t think I can support that.” | David Taylor