Are you living under England’s worst-value council?

Pot holes, missed bin collections and care home costs. Britain’s tax burden is on track to reach its highest level for 70 years, yet at the same time taxpayer-funded services are being cut as local authorities’ finances are pushed to the brink. 

With council tax now costing vast numbers of average billpayers more than £2,000 a year, town halls are making severe cutbacks, from cancelling free bonfire nights to dimming street lights and closing down public toilets. 

But who really has it worse and who is getting the least for what they pay? 

Analysis by this newspaper has found Northumberland council to be the worst value for residents out of all of the country’s local authorities.

This analysis does not take into account differences in the amounts of parish precepts charged to residents, which are not set by upper-tier authorities.

The Telegraph has analysed council tax rates versus quality of services provided across all upper-tier authorities in England for which data were available, including the share of top-rated schools and care homes, the state of roads, the amount of social housing as well as how many burglaries occur per 1,000 homes and the proportion of all collected waste sent for recycling, composting or reuse.  

Northumberland came last of 127 in the rankings after the local authority raised the average Band D council tax to £2,079 per property, the highest rate in England and a hike of 4.55pc this year. 

Although the council has a high proportion of state-funded schools rated “Outstanding” or “Good” by Ofsted (94pc), it was marked down because of a relatively low recycling, composting and reuse rate (30pc) and below-average rankings on road maintenance and social housing.

The council strongly refuted the findings saying it was “being compared with other areas of very different demographical and geographical data” which it insisted were “not comparable” and said the analysis undertaken did not “bear the most basic of scrutiny”.

A spokesman said: “The indicators do not reflect the services the council provides. Comparing a rural county with 3,000 miles of roads against an urban area is unbalanced. Meanwhile burglary rates are included and have no link to council services.”

The council added it was “investing heavily” in schools, leisure facilities, parks and libraries “at a time when many other local authorities are having to cut back”, saying this was not reflected in the analysis.

It added the data analysis was “misleading” and “totally fails to understand how social housing in Northumberland is delivered”.

Gateshead, in Tyne and Wear, came second last for value with council tax rates at £2,071. Nottingham City Council was third last. It raised council by 4.99pc to £2,053 this year.

The best-value council in the UK is Wigan, a town in Greater Manchester, which charges residents £1,480 a year in council taxes on average and has a high concentration of top-rated schools and care homes. 

The cheapest council tax rates in the UK are found in the London boroughs of Wandsworth (£487 a year) and Westminster (£480).

It comes as The Telegraph revealed last month that above-inflation increases to council tax will allow the vast majority of local authorities to charge more than £2,000 for a typical Band D home in 2024-25.

Councils across the country have warned the Prime Minister of a surge in effective bankruptcies unless he makes a last-minute intervention to boost next year’s financial settlement for local government. If help does not come, then councils could be forced to hike taxes for residents.

Bradford Council and Cheshire East Council, both Labour-run, said on Thursday that they may have to issue a section 114 notice, meaning they are unable to balance their budgets by the end of the financial year.

They join councils including Birmingham, Nottingham and Woking which have already declared effective bankruptcy. Other authorities which have issued a section 114 notice have in the past been given permission by ministers to increase council tax by up to 15pc – adding hundreds to annual bills.

In April, the Government allowed Croydon to increase bills by 15pc to pay off massive debts. Thurrock and Slough were both told they could put up bills by 10pc. Normally a council is unable to increase bills by more than 5pc without holding a local referendum.

It falls to a council’s chief finance officer to issue a Section 114 notice when it appears their authority’s expenditure will exceed its available resources in any given year.

If councils run out of money because of rising costs, overspending or funding issues then they will have to raise council tax even further, and or cut back on services for residents.

Inflation now stands at 4.6pc, and is expected to fall in the coming months. It means council tax rises are likely to exceed inflation. If councils continue to raise taxes it will pile pain on households already struggling with the cost of living.

Martin Gannon, leader of Gateshead Council, defended the council’s record on value for money, saying: “This is a very unfair comparison for the council and in no way reflects our current position, particularly when you consider that almost 90pc of our properties are in council tax bands A, B and C.

“The system for financing local government is undoubtedly broken and is based on the assumption that local authorities will increase council tax by the maximum amount each year.

“However, a 1pc increase in Gateshead only generates £1m, which will not address the £49.5m funding gap we are facing over the next five years.

“We have lost over 60pc of our grant from the Government, £191m since 2010, which is significantly more than some local authorities. As a result we are having to make some very difficult decisions but as always we are totally committed to doing the best we can for our residents.”

Nottingham City Council was approached for comment.

Are your council services falling apart? Write to money@telegraph.co.uk with your story.