East Riding council tax bills poised to rise by 5.99pc

COUNCIL TAX-PAYERS in the East Riding will have higher bills for the third year running after all but one councillor voted in favour of a 5.99 per cent rise.

Band D taxpayers will pay another £79.28 a year in council tax, which includes extra charges from the police and fire services and parish councils.

Council tax has risen 15 per cent in the East Riding over the past three years – a total of £190 for a Band D taxpayer – following five years when it was frozen.

Central government allowed councils to increase council tax by up to six per cent without triggering a referendum.

Of the 5.99 per cent increase, three per cent is for the adult social care precept.

Council leader Coun Steve Parnaby said: “The council is still strong financially but it is a very difficult message for me and other councils to get across that we’re actually increasing council tax by 5.99 per vent and yet we’re reducing expenditure.”

East Riding Labour Group described funding for adult social care as the “elephant in the room”, saying the three per cent increase would meet only a third of the cost pressures with the rest having to come from ring-fenced reserves.

They said without a major investment from central government “the provision of universal services would come much more of a challenge in the later years of the financial plan”.

A “bright spot” was the acceptance of a Labour Group proposal for the retention of a £200,000 hardship fund for the neediest of families in crisis situations as Universal Credit is rolled out.

Independent councillor Andy Strangeway, the only councillor to vote against the rises, said with inflation at three per cent and wages only increasing by 2.3 per cent, the council tax increase was “unaffordable” for many residents.

He added that the Government was “failing to address the funding crisis that the UK is facing with regards to social care”.