Harlow Council is set to freeze its share of Council Tax for the fifth-year running, the Leader of the Council, Councillor Dan Swords, has announced today.
Nearly every council in the UK has announced that they will be increasing Council Tax and hiking their bills for residents demonstrating quite how different Harlow Council’s proposal is.
The budget, expected to be the biggest the council has ever set, will invest hundreds of millions into Building Harlow’s Future without charging any more in council tax.
The council’s 2026 budget proposals, due to be published this week, will go to Cabinet on 19 February before a final decision at Full Council on 26 February.
Announcing the Council Tax freeze, Councillor Dan Swords, Leader of Harlow Council, said that despite rising costs the council is maintaining its commitment to keeping bills down:
“Since 2021, the cost of employing staff, energy and materials has increased significantly. Inflation has driven the cost of almost everything up by more than 25%. Everything costs more - except what you pay to Harlow Council for absolutely everything we deliver, from bin collections to grass cutting, from rebuilding the town centre to road sweeping.
“Back in 2021, the average Harlow household paid £4.93 a week for our services, and today it’s not a penny more. That’s because we’ve frozen your Harlow Council Tax every single year since - five years, five freezes - at a time when nearly every other council in the country are putting bills up.
“And we’ve not cut services to achieve it, but instead improved services, significantly increasing overall council spending, and delivering the biggest regeneration programme of any council in the country.
“We’ve achieved this by transforming how the council works - cutting waste, reducing bureaucracy, making smart commercial decisions, and treating every pound of public money with the respect it deserves.
“So, in 2026, while prices continue to rise elsewhere, we are proposing to freeze Harlow’s Council Tax once again. Because councils should make life easier - not harder. And because Harlow deserves a council that works for you.
“This week we will publish our 2026 budget, and it will be the biggest ever with a very clear message: we’re transforming our council to Build Harlow’s Future.”