Good news and bad on council tax

The district council is getting a three per cent increase, which a council spokesman said yesterday was good news.

But the grant being received by West Sussex County Council is the lowest in the country, and county council leader Henry Smith said that this will lead to "painful" choices when preparing the 2006-07 budget.

Such a low county grant is likely to far outweigh any benefit from an increased Arun grant, because county council expenditure accounts for about 76 per cent of every pound paid in council tax.

Last year, West Sussex received the second lowest grant increase of any county council. This year it has the lowest '“ only a two per cent increase.

Few major councils providing services such as highways and caring services for children and adults have fared well.

The government has held down grant increases to 30 of the 34 counties to between only two per cent to three per cent.

West Sussex leader Henry Smith, said: "The Local Government Association has warned government that an extra 2 billion was needed to stave off massive council tax increases or swingeing cuts in services. The government has failed to find what was needed, injecting only an extra 305 million.

"We are still looking closely at the figures, but it is already clear we have had yet another very raw deal.

"The government is demanding more and more from local government, but shifting the burden for meeting the cost away from the national exchequer and taking it from the pockets of our hard-stretched council tax payers.

"It is far too early to speculate about council tax levels in West Sussex next year. However, we are constantly looking for efficiency savings on top of the 22 million we have found in the last three years, and will do everything we can to protect front-line services. I am determined to keep the final increase at the lower end of the national scale, but this will inevitably involve some painful choices.

"As part of that process, we will be looking carefully at the results of the recent wide-ranging budget consultation with our residents, and what they told us about priorities and council tax levels," he said.

Mr Smith said the county council's budget and level of council tax will be decided by the full council at its meeting on February 17, 2006. In the meantime, he was not ruling out making strong representations to the government over the grant figure.

The county council has lost 39 million in grants in recent years because of the way that government funding has been switched from the south east to the midlands and the north.

Other district authority and parish precepts must be added to the county and police demands.