No council tax increase for 2010

Harrow Council has agreed to set a zero per cent council tax increase in 2010/11.

The decision was made to help residents through the economic recovery and assist local businesses to weather the economic storm.

The freeze in council tax is a result of the council spending money carefully, investing in key services but also building up reserves to over £6.5m whilst investing £4.3m next year in services including social care and waste disposal.

Leader of the Council, Cllr David Ashton said: "We know that money is tight for residents at the moment and we are focused on helping to make their lives better by keeping household bills down during tough economic times.

"Freezing council tax this year has been made possible by spending council tax money wisely on the key priorities, and remaining absolutely committed to providing good value for money services.

"We know we face a number of challenges - including the need to save £50m over the next three years. However, we are looking at different ways of cutting our costs to provide even better services for less."

Council Tax Freeze: How we have done this year

The council is estimating it will spend £0.5m less than budgeted by the end of this financial year.

Savings of £45million have been made by the council since 2006.  All the while, we are increasing reserves to a total of nearly £7million by the end of 2009/10 - a five-fold increase.

This year, we have introduced a number of new initiatives as well as making improvements to the services on offer:

Delivering Cleaner and Safer Streets

• £14 million was spent this year to ensure the borough's streets have been kept clean and safe, with around £2 million of the funding being used to implement new digital bin technology to improve recycling rates 
• £500,000 was also invested in new security cameras to improve the safety of shopping areas, as well as the £250,000 invested in additional policing around Harrow Town Centre 
• We have enrolled 350 residents in the new Neighbourhood Champions scheme

Build stronger communities

• 13,000 people were attracted to Harrow 's biggest music and community festival, Under One Sky.  This summer also saw the premier of Film on the Hill - a free film outdoor cinema event, which attracted over 500 people
• Over 200 activities were provided for young people over the summer holidays in the Summer Uni scheme.  More recently, a new programme, called Street Games, is offering young people the chance to take part in free sports courses throughout the year
• Encouraged over 36,000 residents to volunteer

Improve support for vulnerable people

• More than 300 people have joined up to the new Personal Budgets scheme - enabling residents to take control of the financial support they receive.  Harrow is currently the leading local authority in this area, offering more people than anywhere else the opportunity to take a hold of their money
• Three new neighbourhood resource centres have been built and opened in the borough to provide day care services to disabled residents of the borough
• The council has also opened nine new Children's Centres around the borough

Council Tax Freeze: Top 10 activities for next year

Although we are planning to freeze council tax as well as making savings, the council is still planning a raft of new flagship actions to make residents' lives better.

The top ten initiatives and services planned for next year are to:

Delivering cleaner and safer streets

• Distribute a free borough-wide traceable property marking product to prevent burglary and other crimes
• Encourage over 2000 residents to sign up to the Neighbourhood Champions scheme to help deliver cleaner and safer streets
• Opening a futuristic new police kiosk on St Ann 's Road, which will act as a base for Harrow 's dedicated Town Centre police team
• Improve 11 parks including delivery of the new Playbuilder Scheme

Build stronger communities

• Open the newly built Whitmore High School in September, which will offer state-of-the-art education and new sixth form facilities to over 1300 students
• Complete the Age of Transfer for year 7 pupils to join high schools in September
• Provide electric car charging points in the heart of Harrow and redeveloping Station Road to allow a 2 way bus route through the Town Centre to allow easier access

Improve support for vulnerable people

• Launch an innovative online catalogue of services to help 500 users buy what they need and support a further 800 residents to control their own budgets
• Help get people on the property ladder by delivering 219 new affordable homes
• Open a further six children's centres to offer a range of early learning and health services as well as open two new learning centres for autistic children in Aylward and Priestmead schools

Source: Harrow Council

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