Steve Rotheram has today confirmed that he will not be charging a Mayoral Precept on Council Tax bills, across the six Liverpool City Region council areas, in the next financial year.

At a time when the government is asking taxpayers in some of the UK’s most disadvantaged areas to pay the price for their continuing cuts to the police and local councils, members of the Combined Authority believe it would be wrong to add further financial pressure on local residents.

Explaining the decision, the Metro Mayor said:

“Thanks to investment from the six local councils in the City Region, the Combined Authority will be able to support its core expenditure for 12 months without a precept. Over the next year further work will be done to identify a sustainable funding model for the long term.

“Our devolution deal guaranteed £900 million of additional public money into our City Region over 30 years and we have been investing that in projects that will create more jobs, apprenticeships and economic growth.

“Since my election we have been successful in attracting nearly half a billion pounds in additional money to support investment in roads, transport and combatting homelessness.

“Devolution is delivering a massive net financial gain to our area and as long as there is no need to add to the size of local tax bills, we will avoid doing that.”

The Combined Authority Budget will be presented to the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority Meeting on Friday, 2 February 2018.