A Tory call to keep any rise in the borough's council tax at inflation or lower for 2025/26 will be debated by Blackburn with Darwen councillors on Thursday evening.

The authority's Conservative group have tabled a motion on the issue to its annual Policy Forum meeting on December 5.

Moved by Darwen South ward's Cllr Kevin Connor it says that Labour's finance boss Cllr Vicky McGurk should 'cap council tax at the rate of inflation or five per cent whichever is the lower until 2026'.

The motion, seconded by group leader Cllr John Slater reads: "At Prime Minister's Questions on November 13, Keir Starmer was non-committal when asked by the leader of the opposition to confirm if he would keep the cap on council tax.

"This failure to rule out changes came amid fiscal reforms rolled out by the Chancellor during the Autumn Budget.

"Downing Street has since said that the five per cent cap will remain.

"This is three times the current rate of inflation and if fully enacted by councils will add to the financial pressures being felt by households.

"At the Executive Board Meeting on June 13, the Executive member for Growth and Development highlighted the performance of the borough’s growth programme."

This included:

  • house building continuing to perform well with 598 housing completions delivered in 2023/24 – the highest ever recorded in the borough;
  • since 2015/16 there have been 3,415 housing completions across the borough; with 2,934 new homes and 481 conversions;
  • the new Local Plan identifying a pipeline of circa 7,000 homes over the next 15 years with 56 per cent already benefitting from planning permission.
  • in 2015/16 the council forecasted a total Section 106 income of £1.4million for infrastructure investment as a result of development, with the current Section 106 developers’ contributions forecast now being more than £12m and growing; and
  • more than 6,000 additional jobs generated since 2017 with the borough home to nearly 5,000 businesses with one of the highest rates of new business growth in the North West.

The motion adds: "This council recognises the contribution this level of growth has made to generating significant income.

"To remove doubt about future government policy changes to council tax and to protect our residents from further financial hardship, we request that the executive member for finance presents to the Finance Council a budget that will include a recommendation to cap council tax at the rate of inflation or five per cent whichever is the lower until 2026."