London residents’ council tax bill hits almost £5bn a year
London homeowners and renters have had to pay almost £5bn in council tax bills a year, according to new research.
According to one of the capital’s estate agents, Benham and Reeves, said Londoners had paid £1.2bn more per year compared to five years ago.
The average resident in the city pays £1,374 in council tax per year, up 26.8 per cent in the last five years.
Boroughs with the highest total council tax bills per year include Croydon (£252m), followed by Bromley (£225m), Ealing (£195m) and Lambeth (£1782m).
The south-west borough of Richmond charges the highest council tax cost per property at £2,065 per year while Southwark has seen the largest increase over the last five years at 36.8 per cent.
On the other side of the city, Barnet is where the highest sum of council tax is paid on an annual basis, with £258.5m paid across the 146,730 homes in the borough.
Council tax has increased in part due to an extra 150,000 homes being built in the city, as well as an increasing cost to households.
The borough to see the largest annual increase in council tax costs over the last five years has been Tower Hamlets, with the total paid per year increasing by 48.6 per cent.
Boroughs to also see large hikes in the total sum of council tax paid include Southwark (45 per cent), Barking and Dagenham (41.4 per cent), Lewisham (41 per cent) and Croydon (38.9 per cent).