Lincolnshire's Reform council leader hits back at Conservative criticism over a proposed council tax rise

Coun Sean Matthews told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that the county’s leadership had made no final decision on plans to increase council tax.

The Reform-led administration is, however, considering increasing council tax by almost five per cent – the maximum amount that local authorities are allowed without holding a referendum.

At an executive meeting on Tuesday, January 6, county councillors were told that the council is currently holding a public consultation on the proposal and is considering alternative options.

The options include raising council tax by 4.49 per cent and 3.99 per cent but the authority has acknowledged that this would create a deficit of £2 million or £4.1 million respectively and would be “an ongoing pressure to manage”.

But the Lincolnshire Conservative Group at the county council has criticised the plans and said that the party promised residents that they would keep council tax as low as possible.

Grantham West’s Richard Davies, who leads the Conservative Group on the county council, said: “We feared the worst and we are, as yet, not surprised.

“I mean, shocked slightly, having heard the rhetoric before the election about keeping taxes low, cutting taxes.

“We all had those leaflets through our door in the run up to the county council election, saying one of the priorities of Reform was to cut tax. That reality is that hasn’t happened.”

Coun Davies told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that he wanted the Reform administration to reconsider its proposal.

He said that if Reform perform a U-turn as a result of public pressure he would ‘thank them for it’.

But Coun Matthews hit back at the criticism from the Conservative group and said they were making misleading accusations.

He added: “It’s not us misleading anybody. We haven’t announced what the council tax levy will be so they have no grounds to be suggesting anything other than ‘we have to wait and see’.

“When the announcement is made then they can make the decision about whether we’ve been misleading anybody or not but it’s not us that’s misleading anybody at all.

“We’re not the ones spouting off about £17 million here, 4.99 per cent for the council tax. None of that is accurate.

“None of that is true and I’m afraid that it is the Tory party who are skewed and still bitter about losing the election last year.”

Coun Matthews went on to say that the proposal was still part of a consultation and the party is looking at ways to keep council tax as low as possible.

He added: “That is what we were elected to do. Keep taxes as low as possible, save money and reduce costs.

“That is what we are here to do and that is what we are aiming to do.”

Coun Matthews said that the proposed council budget was part of a wider mission for the authority to cut costs.

He added: “It’s a huge piece of work. There are proposals for savings. We’ve identified tens of millions of pounds worth of savings that we will use in different ways, whilst at the same time improving other services.

“It is exactly what we stood for in the election, where we were talking about cutting waste, reducing costs and bringing forward a sensible, common-sense approach to governing this council.”

Michelle Grady, chief finance officer at the county council, had told the meeting that a series of cost pressures on council services have meant that the authority is considering ways to balance its budget.

She added: “The cost pressures for the period that we’re looking at for 2026 to 2027, amounted to £82.6 million and savings and additional income have been identified as £25 million, increasing to £65 million over the medium term plan.

“The pressures clearly outstrip the additional funding that we’re receiving so those savings have been necessary and we continue to work on those efficiency savings.

“The pressures, particularly around adult and children’s social care, include demand pressures and inflationary cost pressures as well.”

A consultation into the proposed council tax rise is currently ongoing and a final decision will be made in February.

Residents can take part via: www.letstalk.lincolnshire.gov.uk/budget-2627