Council tax bills rise to pay for Bee Network expansion

The mayoral element of council tax Greater Manchester will rise in the spring to subsidise the cost of the Bee Network, it’s been confirmed. 

The mayoral precept will rise by £16 next financial year for a band D council tax property, but the majority of Greater Manchester residents live in a lower-banded home so will pay less. Band D households will now pay £128.95 for the precept.

The precept is collected by councils and paid to the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA), which oversees the fire service and Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM), among others.

This year, the precept is increasing by £11 to cover costs incurred by TfGM in creating the Bee Network. The rise has long been planned for by officials, and was initially supposed to be a two-year surge with a £12.20 jump in 2025.

But the ‘decision was taken it would be unfair to ask everyone in Greater Manchester to contribute when not everyone was seeing the success of the Bee Network’, Andy Burnham said on Friday (February 7), prompting a delay in implementing increase so it took place after Bee Network buses were rolled out across the city-region.

He added the new publicly-controlled system was ‘getting better value for money then we got in our deregulated system’, and increases in passenger numbers would bring in more revenue to pay for services.

The remainder of the increase, worth £5 for a band D home, pays for the fire service. Fire chiefs are facing ‘difficult decisions’ ahead, deputy mayor Kate Green added, due to government cuts.

“The fire settlement is very difficult,” she told leaders in Trafford on Friday. “It’s a reduction in budget in cash terms. It will require difficult decisions which this year will be able to address in reserves and efficiencies.” 

Two-thirds of the mayoral precept is spent on the fire service, with £86.20 going to crews, and the remaining £42.75 funding ‘other Mayoral General functions’, including transport.

“These are difficult times and we remain conscious of the pressures on residents,” Mr Burnham said of the increase at Friday’s GMCA meeting. “At a Greater Manchester and district level we are looking to help to keep the pressure off as much as we can.”

The mayoral precept increases were approved by Mr Burnham and all 10 Greater Manchester council leaders unanimously.