{"id":3562,"date":"2026-03-01T08:30:56","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T08:30:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dhwnews.com\/?p=3562"},"modified":"2026-03-01T08:40:50","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T08:40:50","slug":"unbelievable-message-from-hm-government-to-rbwm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dhwnews.com\/?p=3562","title":{"rendered":"Unbelievable message from HM Government to RBWM."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Its the Council Budget season again.\u00a0 I attended the RBWM Cabinet Meeting on 24\/2\/2026 and reminded the attendees about the Wraysbury Drain at Hythe End, the Black Potts Footbridge in Datchet and the RTS\/DHEFIM Partnership Funding problem.\u00a0 <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>Could it be that the costs of fixing these issues will be about \u00a30.5m, \u00a31.0m and \u00a350m respectively.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>RBWM Council Tax lags behind other councils.\u00a0 Apparently HM Government has informed RBWM that the Council Tax can be raised by 7.45%.\u00a0 In fact the long-term reductions in Central Government funding have resulted in a Budget Deficit but <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>HM Government has generously confirmed that further monies can be borrowed and added to our existing debt mountain.\u00a0 \u00a0CAN YOU BELIEVE IT!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/questions-statements.parliament.uk\/written-statements\/detail\/2026-02-09\/hcws1315#:~:text=The%20Final%20Settlement,-I%20have%20laid&amp;text=Together%2C%20the%20reports%20represent%20the,standalone%20Fire%20and%20Rescue%20Authorities.\">Local Government Finance Settlement<\/a><\/strong><\/span> 2026\/27 and 2027\/28<\/p>\n<p><strong>Council tax and Exceptional Financial Support<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Fairness for taxpayers is at the heart of this government\u2019s decision making. For the vast majority of councils, the government will maintain a core referendum threshold of 3%, with a 2% adult social care precept over the multi-year Settlement. When taking decisions on council tax levels, the government expects all authorities to carefully consider the impact on households.<\/p>\n<p>Our local government finance reforms get money to where it is needed, but <strong><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">we recognise that some councils remain in a challenging financial position as they continue to deal with the legacy of the previous system.<\/span><\/strong> Some have requested additional flexibility to increase their council tax without holding a referendum next year. We have carefully considered requests from these councils and only agreed to small additional flexibilities in seven councils \u2013 less than the councils requested in all but one area. We will provide additional flexibilities so councils can decide whether to set their council tax above 5% core referendum principles in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (1.75%), Warrington (2.5%), Trafford (2.5%), Worcestershire (4%), Shropshire (4%), North Somerset (4%), and <strong><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">Windsor and Maidenhead (2.5%) next year<\/span><\/strong>. These additional flexibilities are a limit, not a target. Decisions on council tax levels are for local authorities. One fire authority will also receive an additional flexibility of \u00a35.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Its the Council Budget season again.\u00a0 I attended the RBWM Cabinet Meeting on 24\/2\/2026 and reminded the attendees about the Wraysbury Drain at Hythe End, the Black Potts Footbridge in Datchet and&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[347,110,346],"class_list":["post-3562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-council-debt","tag-rbwm-council-tax","tag-rbwm-debt"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Unbelievable message from HM Government to RBWM. - DHWNEWS<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dhwnews.com\/?p=3562\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Unbelievable message from HM Government to RBWM. - DHWNEWS\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Its the Council Budget season again.\u00a0 I attended the RBWM Cabinet Meeting on 24\/2\/2026 and reminded the attendees about the Wraysbury Drain at Hythe End, the Black Potts Footbridge in Datchet and...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/dhwnews.com\/?p=3562\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"DHWNEWS\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-03-01T08:30:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-03-01T08:40:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"ecwlarcombe\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"ecwlarcombe\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dhwnews.com\\\/?p=3562#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dhwnews.com\\\/?p=3562\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"ecwlarcombe\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dhwnews.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/2f696cd1eb9c322931f8d0e39fdf8017\"},\"headline\":\"Unbelievable message from HM Government to RBWM.\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-03-01T08:30:56+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-03-01T08:40:50+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dhwnews.com\\\/?p=3562\"},\"wordCount\":334,\"commentCount\":1,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dhwnews.com\\\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Council debt\",\"RBWM council tax\",\"RBWM debt\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Uncategorized\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/dhwnews.com\\\/?p=3562#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dhwnews.com\\\/?p=3562\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dhwnews.com\\\/?p=3562\",\"name\":\"Unbelievable message from HM Government to RBWM. - DHWNEWS\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dhwnews.com\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2026-03-01T08:30:56+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-03-01T08:40:50+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dhwnews.com\\\/?p=3562#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/dhwnews.com\\\/?p=3562\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dhwnews.com\\\/?p=3562#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dhwnews.com\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Unbelievable message from HM Government to RBWM.\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dhwnews.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dhwnews.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"DHWNEWS\",\"description\":\"Datchet, Horton &amp; 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