Call to halt internal drainage board levies

摘要

District councils are to launch a renewed push for the Government to stop internal drainage board levies counting towards the council tax increase threshold. The District Councils' Network (DCN), which has repeatedly asked the Department for Communities and Local Government to treat the levies as a totally separate precept, now plans to take its fight to the new ministerial team. In an article for The MJ's sister website Transport Network, DCN chairman Cllr Neil Clarke wrote: 'As drainage board fees are a levy - not a precept - increases in drainage board levies are not limited and district councils must pay them out of their budget. Therefore, a major increase could have a significant effect on a council's finances. For example, if a drainage board chooses to increase its levy, which many may need to do in response to increased incidents of the kind of flooding many areas experienced this winter, the district council either has to raise their council tax to compensate or absorb the cost.