JUST two weeks after the installation of ex-Manchester mayor Andy Burnham as PM, to save collapsing British capitalism from drowning in debt, Labour is planning a savage £28 billion council tax raid across England and Wales for a rise of £500 annually by 2030 for the average household.
New figures from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) show that the national council tax take is set to increase by 43 per cent by 2030, netting £58.8bn.
The rise would add another £500 to average council tax bills despite Andy Burnham’s pledge to make tackling the cost of living his number one priority.
The Tories branded the tax raid – which would hit 25.6m homes in England – the ‘Burnham premium’, claiming it would increase bills ‘in every postcode’.
Local authorities netted £41.2bn from council tax in 2024/2025, but a series of parliamentary questions has revealed that figure will soar by more than £17bn to £58.8bn by 2030/31.
The questions also revealed that, up to 2030/31, the annual change in the council tax level is expected to be between 4.3 per cent and 4.4 per cent. This is much higher than the current CPI inflation rate of 2.6 per cent.
In 2025/26, the average Band D household in England paid £2,280 in council tax. Applying the Treasury’s expected annual increases indicates that the rate will rise to £2,836 by 2030/31.
Earlier this week, Burnham had ruled out any suggestion of council tax reform during his premiership.
Tory MP James Cleverly, the shadow communities secretary, said the Prime Minister’s plans to impose Manchester-style mayors across the country would now push the council tax bill even higher.
‘His model of Manchesterism is a recipe for soaring taxes in every postcode,’ he said.
‘Labour have already raked in £18bn of council tax rises, and now former Manchester mayor Burnham wants to go further and impose his high-tax regional model across England.’
The strategic authorities headed by these mayors would be able to add a premium on council tax in the form of precepts, meaning that mayors could literally do as they liked.
Since Burnham was elected as Greater Manchester mayor in 2017, the mayoral council tax precept for a Band D property (not including police) has increased by 127 per cent from £68 to £154.
A few small feel-good ‘give-a-away’ policies were announced daily by Burnham with the aim of building positive momentum and avoiding the air of gloom from the failed attempts to cut welfare spending by his predecessor Keir Starmer.
Cheaper bus fares, lower business rates for pubs, VAT off electricity bills were announced without any funding details.
As the mayor of Manchester, he caused panic in the City of London and in the Treasury when he declared that Britain should not be ‘in hock to the bond markets’.
Now he sits atop a government facing a financial crunch with annual borrowings of £115 billion and a national debt set to reach £3 trillion – with borrowing costs soaring.
Grandiose policies to ‘grow the economy’ – from nationalisations to a housebuilding blitz and more defence spending need to be funded – but who is going to pay for it all?
Not the bond markets obviously, since borrowing costs, measured by the yield on Britain’s benchmark 10-year debt, rose above 5 per cent again in Burnham’s first week in charge.
That means whatever extra borrowing Burnham does undertake will be very expensive, adding to the current debt interest burden of £130bn per year.
It is clear that all pro-capitalist governments will never solve the crisis of the ailing British economy.
Capitalism today is a bankrupt system. There is only one way forward. The TUC must be forced to recall the TUC Congress to organise a general strike to bring down this pro-business government of PM Burnham and bring in a Workers Government and socialism in Britain.
This will nationalise the banks and the major industries and bring in a socialist nationalised and planned economy. There is not a moment to lose!
