Average council tax bills will soar past £2,000 for the first time in April after Jeremy Hunt gave the green light to bumper rises.
The Chancellor announced he will relax the cap on town, county and city halls raising bills for hard-pressed families across England.
Instead of only being able to raise them by 3% without a referendum, they will be able to raise them by 5%, the Autumn Statement said - 3% in core council tax plus 2% in social care precept.
Mr Hunt did not spell out the detail in his crafty statement, instead alluding only briefly to "flexibilities".
Average Band D council tax bills are already £1,966 - after shooting up by more than £500 a year since the Tories took power in 2010.
While decisions on each area’s bills will only be made in February, it means the average Band D bill is all but guaranteed to top £2,000 in April. And the Treasury is assuming 95% of councils will raise bills by the full 5%.
Town halls have begged the Chancellor to give them more funding from central government - saying otherwise it would take a 20% council tax rise to plug their funding gaps.
The Local Government Association has previously warned authorities would have to raise council tax by “well over 10%” if a current black hole is filled by tax hikes alone.
The move also breaks the spirit of a promise made in the 2019 Conservative Party manifesto, which said local people would continue to "have the final say” on increases in council tax.
Before the statement, the Local Government Association warned relying on council tax alone would be “neither sustainable nor desirable given the current cost of living crisis”.
Councils are already facing a £2.4bn gap in their budgets this year since they were set in Autumn, due to inflation and rising minimum wage.
An LGA spokesperson said: “While council tax is an important funding stream, it has never been the solution to the long-term pressures facing councils.”
The County Councils Network previously said its members were “grappling with £3.5bn in inflationary and demand costs this year and next” but warned many families “continue to be impacted by the cost-of-living crisis.
“Large-scale council tax rises are not the answer to the scale of the financial challenges councils face, and would be unfair and unacceptable for residents.”
