Cllr Nick Botterill is the Leader of Hammersmith and Fulham Council
This month we are proud to be proposing yet another 3 per cent cut to the council tax bill of our residents. Once approved, it would be the seventh reduction in eight years, saving residents £850 a year when compared to the average council tax increase during that period. That is a 20 per cent cut in the bill over that period.
With gas, water and electricity prices constantly rising, we know how much financial pressure the average household is under. That is why we have been working so hard to reduce the burden in the one area that we control.
We are doing this while continuing to do everything we can to improve the quality of life in our borough. I am delighted by the strong improvement shown in our schools, by the improvements in our parks and, most recently, by the record crime drop.
H&F has managed to cut council tax simply by managing our finances in the same way as many of you manage yours. We don’t spend what we don’t have and we make every penny go as far as it can.
Just like prudent households, we have been paying back our debt. We used to owe £176 million, which cost you more than £9.5m a year in interest. By selling buildings that we no longer need, we have paid back £100m of that debt.
For the first time in a generation we now have more money in the bank than we owe.