Hot weather

The weather is exceptionally hot. View guidance on conserving water and staying safe in hot weather and what to do if you see someone sleeping on the streets on Severe Weather Emergency Provision (SWEP).

Make sure your email is genuine

Please be aware that some emails received by residents regarding late payments are not from the council. If you are unsure, you can check your online account, pay online or contact us. Learn more on these types of emails at National Cyber security.

Help if you're struggling to pay your Council Tax

If you're struggling to pay your Council Tax instalments, it's important that you let us know so that we can help you avoid falling behind.

Whatever the circumstances do not ignore your bill. Recovery action will continue if you do not pay.

Set up a Direct Debit

To help spread out the Council Tax instalments equally, you can set up a Direct Debit.

This should help make the payments more manageable and ensure that you don't miss a payment.

Pay over 12 monthly instalments

You can pay your Council Tax instalments over 12 months instead of 10 months to help lower your monthly cost.

12 monthly instalments are only available at the start of the tax year (from 1 April to 1 March), but we can spread your remaining instalments through to 1 March if you are up to date with your payments.

Request to pay over 12 months rather than 10.

Contact us about your concerns

If you are unable to pay an instalment due to a one-off circumstance you should contact us before the payment is due.

We can:

  • spread the missed payment over your remaining instalments
  • push back your instalments so that they end a month later (if you pay over 10 months)

Council Tax discounts and reductions

If you're struggling to pay your Council Tax, you could see if you are eligible for:

Other schemes that can help

Council Tax arrears are a 'priority debt' which means that it should be paid before other debt like credit cards.

If you are struggling to pay your Council Tax due to financial difficulties, you could: