Wandsworth's 94% Council Tax Plan and the Funding Row Behind It

Kemi Badenoch said the Conservative Party has asked lawyers to examine whether the funding cut behind Wandsworth's proposed council tax rise can be challenged. She told BBC Newsnight in an interview reported on 17 September BBC.

Wandsworth is consulting on a 94% increase in the total Band D bill. Band D is the standard property band councils use to compare bills. Badenoch described the proposed rise as "outrageous". She said the council is "not doing it because they want to". She said the government has taken away 40% of Wandsworth Council's funding. Ministers reject that description.

Wandsworth Council said the proposed increase follows an £84m-a-year government funding cut. It said it stands to lose £84m a year by the end of the next three years under changes to the council funding formula announced last year.

The planned rise is £958, with half set by the council and half by the Mayor of London. An average Band D property in Wandsworth currently pays just over £1,000 in council tax. That compares with more than £2,000 in a growing number of London boroughs. The council's own Spending Review report projects its share rising to £1,468 in 2027/28. It describes that as equal to about a 94% increase in the total Band D bill Wandsworth Council.

The rise was announced at a council meeting on Tuesday. A final decision will be made early next year. The council plans to consult residents first. It will then submit a formal appeal to ministers asking them to reconsider the funding cut PoliticsHome.

The government said it needs to reform an "outdated" council funding system to move money to where it is most needed. Ministers said redistribution corrects for need. They said it does not penalise individual authorities.

The usual referendum principles have been set aside for Wandsworth and four other authorities. Referendum principles are the limits that normally force a local vote on a large rise. The usual 5% cap on annual rises was lifted for Wandsworth, Westminster, Richmond, Kensington and Chelsea, and Windsor and Maidenhead as a result of the central cuts. That means those councils can raise more than others can.

The dispute may widen beyond Wandsworth. Westminster, Richmond and Kensington and Chelsea councils are considering joining Wandsworth in using the Sustainable Communities Act to challenge the cuts. The Act is a 2007 law that allows councils to put a formal proposal to the Secretary of State, the cabinet minister in charge. It is rarely used at this scale.

The broader context here is as much procedural as financial. A request under the Act forces a reasoned ministerial response. It creates a paper trail that can then be tested politically and, if Badenoch's legal advice points that way, in court. Opposition lawyers will ask familiar public law questions. Was consultation adequate, were equalities and need assessments properly conducted, and did ministers act within the funding powers Parliament granted.

Looking at what this means for party management, Badenoch is attempting two things at once. She is distancing the councils from responsibility for increases voters will feel directly. She is keeping the dispute inside an institutional process of consultation and appeal. That avoids asking Conservative-run town halls to defy the funding settlement outright. It also buys time until the final decisions early next year.