Radical bid to have no council tax will be revealed

Councillor Ferris Cowper, leader of East Hampshire District Council, will reveal how the council is bucking the national trend by cutting council tax at the next community forum in Horndean.

The council has proposed a two per cent decrease, one of the only councils in the country to do so.

If approved, the cut would be a step towards the council’s ambition to reduce council tax to zero by 2024.

Cllr Cowper will outline the council’s budget for 2016/2017 at the meeting starting at 6.30pm on Monday at Jubilee Hall, Catherington Lane.

He will show how the council is able to reduce its taxes and explain the council’s long-term plans to free itself of reliance on annual government grants and, if possible, reduce council tax to zero.

Cllr Cowper said: ‘Our financial strategy is radical and unique.

‘Where many councils cope with a drop in income by raising taxes or cutting services we have decided to go a different way

‘We aim to be self-sufficient by removing our reliance on government grants and, if we can, reducing our council tax to nothing.’