Angela Rayner blocks plans to hike council tax by 25% as Lib Dems accused of 'forcing residents’ to pay for their incompetence'

However, the council has now announced that the Government's Ministry for Housing and Local Government, led by Deputy PM Angela Rayner, would limit the increase to just under nine per cent instead.

Newham Council was granted the same dispensation, while Bradford Council was permitted 9.9 per cent. Birmingham City Council, Somerset Council and Trafford Council were given permission to increase council tax by 7.49 per cent.

The news in Windsor and Maidenhead was welcomed by the Conservatives, who said they were "relieved" at the news, and accused the Liberal Democrats of losing control of the council's finances.

A spokesman for the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead Conservative Group of Councillors said: "We are relieved to have received the news that having opposed the Royal Borough’s astonishing request to increase our residents' Council Tax by 25 per cent, that the Government have, to a degree, listened.

"Instead of the 25 per cent requested, Angela Rayner has confirmed that the Government will allow RBWM to raise Council Tax by nine per cent.

"Whilst this is thankfully on average £289 less per household compared to the 25 per cent rise; we are still concerned about the effect of this on our residents' pockets.

"Nine per cent is still a much higher increase than many would have normally expected or budgeted for. There are still huge cost of living pressures."

The statement continued: "The Lib Dems in their manifesto only two years ago, told residents they will continue to be a low-tax borough by identifying alternative revenue streams and managing our finances more sensibly. We will continue to have the lowest Band D council tax outside London.

"Now we see in just over the past almost 2 years, that they have lost control of the finances, overspending into the many millions and are now claiming they will, as a result of the Government’s decision, need to further increase your borrowing resulting in more debt repayments to be paid for by generations to come.

"They are now blaming Labour for 'forcing them to borrow more'. It will be interesting to see their plan for paying this back – it will be interesting to see the action they take to raise income and hopefully not by borrowing more but by taking the opportunities they have in hand.

"Let’s hope they can remember their pledge to residents to identify alternative revenue streams rather than use the blame game again and again.

"We do not need to keep increasing Council Tax and forcing residents to pay for their incompetence.

"The Lib Dems are blaming us, blaming Labour and not taking any accountability for the millions of pounds of overspends.

"Whilst we are delighted that the Government have heard us, we are aware of the pain our residents will still feel and we will continue our fight."

Tory Councillor Julian Sharpe told GB News: "We are now concerned that with this restriction, they will want to borrow more, to make the books balance...they have no real plans to pay the debt either."

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The Liberal Democrat council leaders hit back, saying the refusal would "force" RBWM to borrow more to avoid going bankrupt this year, which would lead to higher increases in the future.

A Lib Dem spokesman said: "While this will be more affordable for residents, it means that RBWM's financial situation will not improve this year. This is because RBWM will still need to spend the equivalent of the originally proposed 25 per cent increase and will now have to fund the difference by further increasing our borrowing.

"The effect of this will be to increase our debt and consequently increase our borrowing cost in the coming year and beyond. This situation is unsustainable...This decision from Labour defers the full resolution of the council's financial situation to the future.

"This will necessitate further above cap increases in future years, increases debt and creates a massive financial burden on residents in the future."

The TaxPayers' Alliance said it was a "pleasant surprise" that the "barmy" request from Windsor & Maidenhead had been rejected.

Head of campaigns of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: "Taxpayers will be expecting to see immediate results from the inflation-busting tax hikes that they're being subjected to, particularly given the increase in government funding above and beyond this rate rise.

"Every year residents are being hit with ever higher bills, only to see depressingly little improvement in their local area."

The RBWM spokesman aid: “Recognising that only by increasing council tax and reducing the reliance on borrowing will the council become financially sustainable our ask, to raise council tax by 20 per cent above the current cap of 4.99 per cent, was on the scale of increase necessary to set our budget following years of cuts to council tax from 2010.

"We will consider what this means for us while we also await an outcome on the other part of our government support request, a loan which will need to be paid back over several years and which we will need to adjust given our council tax increase is less than we needed – ahead of us having a fuller picture of our budget position for the next financial year."