内容摘要：The woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, said when staff were informed they replied: "Oh there's loads."

The woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, said when staff were informed they replied: "Oh there's loads."

In Wales, local authorities are increasing 2025-2026 council tax bills by between 5% and more than 9%.Ian may be stretching his point a little - local authorities provide a range of services such as street lighting, parks and care services.

However, at its heart, his question highlights a common debate.Should these bill increases stay at the bare minimum because people are struggling financially, or are our local services in such desperate need of investment that council tax needs to go up above inflation?One important point to stress here is that different people, in different areas of the country, will be affected in different ways.

Water and energy bills vary depending on where you live, and the different nations of the UK have different rules on council tax and more.But the state pension is UK-wide, and the good news is that it will be going up by more than the rate of price rises from next week. The triple lock means it will increase by 4.1%.

Does everyone get the full state pension? No.

Does the increase mean pensioners' finances won't be stretched? Of course not.With Iohannis out of office now, attention will refocus on the re-run of the election in May.

Georgescu, the radical outsider, is the strong favourite to win. Ioannis's resignation looks set to further empower his electorate, and analysts and Georgescu's supporters have called it a boost for the far-right.Ioannis's departure has also been welcomed by Georgescu's liberal rival, Elena Lasconi.

Lasconi said Iohannis's resignation had come "far too late to be considered honourable", adding that she was glad parliamentary pressure "woke Iohannis from his slumber".Hundreds of anti-Iohannis protesters had gathered in the capital Bucharest on Monday calling for his resignation.