Cllr Helen Harrison is the Leader of the Conservative Group on North Northants Council
What has happened to the promises that Reform UK made in the local elections last year to ‘Reduce waste and cut your taxes’?
As Leader of the Opposition on North Northants Council (NNC), here’s my assessment:
Let’s start with their key pledge of reducing wasteful spending.
Drunk on their love of Donald Trump and all things USA, they announced to great fanfare that they were going to bring DOGE to every Reform-run council. What happened to that?
Well, here in North Northamptonshire, it became an internally run ‘Efficiency Review’. The results of which were reported to the Executive and ran to a grand total of five pages and said nothing new.
In their 2026/27 budget, they boast of a planned £20.1 million of savings and efficiencies but then admit that they are the continuation of savings already identified and still deliverable. So, after all that bluster and all that criticism, Reform are relying on the savings plans identified during the Conservative administration of this Council and have made no progress on their pledge to reduce waste.
And what about cutting taxes?
Cllr Martin Griffiths, the Council Leader, had this to say on one of his election leaflets last May:
“Enough is enough! The Tory-led NNC hit you with four council tax hikes – but Reform fought back! We stood firm against the rise and are ready to continue to fight for our families, communities and country. With the cost of living hitting hard, vote Reform UK on 1st May to smash tax hikes and demand real change!”
And here’s what happened!
In local government, there is only one tax that we set, which is the Council Tax. But the Reform administration has managed to find not one, not two, but three ways of raising it. They have introduced a brand-new tax – the Second Homes Premium, brought forward the Empty Homes Premium from two years to one, and increased Council Tax by the maximum of 4.99 per cent, and plan to do so for the next three successive years.
It seems that rather than wanting to reduce your taxes, there is no tax rise that they don’t like the look of.
But it doesn’t stop there!
They complained about Executive salaries and said ‘No more 200,000 salaries’. Their Medium Term Financial Plan shows that at least one Executive salary will exceed £200,000 and they have taken on an additional Executive Director on over £120,000.
They said ‘North Northamptonshire Council is £430 million in debt’ ‘Reform will fix it’ -the Council’s debt forecast for 2026/27 is £675 million, and by the end of the forecast period it’s £712 million.
Cllr Griffiths complained last year that the council was “putting up rent to over 8,000 of its residents by 2.7 per cent” – his budget raises it by 4.8 per cent.
They’ve put charges up too. Garden waste collections up by 24 per cent. Non-statutory home to school travel up by 21 per cent. Fees and Charges rates for this coming year will go up too. Not only that, but they now want to introduce new car parking charges and increase rates where they exist already.
So, in North Northamptonshire, Reform UK are costing you more and failing to deliver any meaningful savings. This is a complete inversion of the promises they made.
Don’t trust Reform’s promises…