How much council tax is going up in Oldham

Council tax in Oldham is going up 4.99 per cent. Councillors voted on budget proposals, including £8.7m in cuts.

Slashing service funding; scrapping 120 jobs; and increasing council tax are all part of the plans to fill a £14m black hole in the council budget.

The tax hike will see Band A properties seeing a £77 annual increase and a £232 increase for those in band H properties, as of April. 

Tabling the budget was deputy leader and finance boss Coun Abdul Jabbar, who said there was ‘no choice’ but to put up council tax – which Conservative Coun Max Woodvine controversially regarded as ‘theft’. Labour’s Coun Jabbar welcomed the increased funding from the government following 14 ‘challenging’ years of austerity under the previous Conservative government.

“It’s important to say that I would prefer not to do this,” Coun Jabbar told the chamber. “We will continue to lobby for a fairer way of funding local government.

“The budget has been extremely difficult but for the first time in many years we are not using reserves to deliver a balanced budget.”
He concluded: “This budget brings hope to the people of Oldham.”

Council leader Arooj Shah added that following years of cuts, they’re now beginning ‘on the road to recovery’. That wasn’t how opposition councillors in the chamber saw the budget. 

Lib Dem councillor Sam Al-Hamdani said this budget “doesn’t give hope to the people of Oldham”, and suggested their amendment to the budget could help achieve that. A total of £3m to increase capacity of temporary accommodation could reduce the spending on hotel use and B&Bs for the homeless, according to the Lib Dems. 

The Oldham Group’s idea for the budget, which also focused on homelessness, would repurpose the tower block within the current Civic Centre for temporary accommodation, which the local authority spends £60 a night on.

The scheme involves leasing the Civic Centre to a developer on a 20-year lease, at a ‘peppercorn rent’, which would generate income and reduce council spending on temporary accommodation.

Oldham Group’s Abdul Wahid, referring to the use of hotels and B&Bs for temporary accommodations added: “We can’t continue with short term reactive policies.”

The Tories were the only party that wanted to freeze council tax entirely and fund the budget gap. The Conservatives also wanted to reduce the number of Oldham councillors; cut politicians’ pay; stall senior executive staff pay; reduce advertising and ‘council propaganda’; cut the number of councillors by a third; and create a Director of Greater Efficiencies (DOGE).

The DOGE, inspired by American business tycoon Elon Musk, would have the power to ‘strike down’ wasteful spending in each council department. Coun Lewis Quigg simplified their motion to say they plan to “cut out the greed and troughing that goes on” in the council. 

The alternative budget plans from the Lib Dems, Conservatives and then the Oldham Group were all rejected. After more than three hours of fierce debate Labour’s original budget plan was officially voted through. 

How much tax you each household will pay
Here is a breakdown of the new council tax bill residents in each band will have to pay annually:

Band A: £1,369.16
Band B: £1,597.35
Band C: £1,825.54
Band D: £2,053.74
Band E: £2,510.12
Band F: £2,966.51
Band G: £3,422.90
Band H: £4,107.48

The actual figure residents pay will be slightly higher though, with Greater Manchester precepts for police and fire services added on. For those in Shaw and Saddleworth, tax would be even higher still if parish councils decide to put up their rates too.
Budget reductions breakdown

In terms of the ‘budget reductions’, just under £4m is being subtracted from adult social care. Limiting services to what is necessary on a case-by-case basis, instead of using a ‘one-size-fits-all’ wrap-around approach. 

Then just over £3m will be saved by ‘restructuring’ and cutting 120 job roles within the council, the meeting on March 6 was told. Town hall bosses explained that around 80 pc of the positions being cut are already vacant following staff departures and a round of voluntary redundancies at the end of 2024.

The remaining million are from smaller-scale suggestions, including permanently switching off the faulty floodlights at Radclyffe Athletics Centre, which is currently costing the council £100k a year, increasing the price of swimming pool rentals to schools, bringing parking management ‘in house’ and potentially charging for replacement recycling bins.