Andy Burnham wants to add £22 to council tax to pay for buses, fire service and police

Council tax bills across Greater Manchester could reportedly increase by £22 under Andy Burnham’s plans to pay for bus reform, the fire service’s response to terrorism and improvements to 101 police calls.

Those living in Band D properties would see a £12 increase to their bill from April if the proposed change is approved next month.

The Greater Manchester mayoral precept would reportedly be spent on homeless shelters, the Our Pass bus scheme and reversing a reduction in fire engines.

£10 of the precept would also go towards Greater Manchester Police, which has been in special measures since a damning report by inspectors last year found that 80,000 crimes hadn’t been recorded across a twelve month period.

@Ilovetheeu / Wikimedia Commons

It was also found that the force had a significant backlog of 2,700 emergency calls from vulnerable individuals that it was failing to prioritise.

The mayor didn’t increase the police precept last year after GMP was placed in special measures, saying ‘rewarding failure’ would ‘send the wrong message’.

This year’s proposed tax increase also promises to improve response times to 999 and 101 calls which inspectors say has ‘already improved’.

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The fire element of the precept, which accounts for £5 of the increase for Band D properties, would go towards a proposed pay rise for firefighters.

Burnham said the proposed pay rise recognises the need to respond to terrorist incidents.

The mayor has since said that he recognises the cost of living pressures residents are facing, promising that the proposed increase has been minimised ‘as best we can’.

Greater Manchester Mayor’s Charity

He said the main reason for the increase is the ‘huge undertaking’ of bringing buses in the city-region back under public control.

Burnham said: “This is a massive change. We are the first city-region in the country to use the powers set out in the legislation to do this.

“We already know there are bumps along the road because we are still subject to legal challenge from bus operators. So this is a challenging process.”

The mayoral precepts must be approved at the Police, Fire and Crime Panel today before coming into effect in April.