London council tax hammerblow as borough set to nearly double bills in record rise

Council tax bills in a major London borough are set to nearly double in a hammerblow to hundreds of thousands of residents.

Wandsworth Council has announced plans to increase the levy for a Band D property by £958 from April 2027.

The record increase - a staggering 94% rise - will take the Tory minority-run borough from having the lowest council tax in the country to around average levels.

The south London council, which announced the move on Tuesday night following what it called a “comprehensive” spending review.

It blamed the Labour government’s Fair Funding reforms - which will see spending shifted from London to the North - for reducing Wandsworth’s funding by £84million a year.

The council said that cut was equivalent to the borough’s total combined annual spending on parks, libraries, leisure centres, bin collection and street cleaning.

Wandsworth Council’s deputy leader Peter Graham, who is cabinet member for finance, said it did not take the decision to impose a record council tax rise lightly.

He said: “We promised that we’d be honest with residents.

“Council tax will need to rise unless Government thinks again. And it must think again.

“We do not want to do this, and we do not take this decision lightly, but the scale of the financial pressure facing Wandsworth means additional income is now needed to protect the services people rely on.

“Residents should not be left to carry the cost of an unfair funding system. That is why we are fighting hard at the heart of Government for a fairer deal for Wandsworth, and why we have made a clear case ahead of the Autumn Budget that our borough should not be punished for running efficient services and keeping council tax low.

“Our message to residents is clear: we are on your side, we are making your case, and we will keep fighting for the funding Wandsworth deserves.”

With around 340,000 residents, Wandsworth is one of the capital’s most populous boroughs. It was the Conservative’s flagship London borough for decades, having been under Tory control from 1978 to 2022, when Labour took over.