HOUSEHOLDS in Northumberland look set to face another hefty council tax hike this year.

Officials at Northumberland County Council have admitted that their calculations for the upcoming year’s budget have been based on increasing the council tax rate by the maximum level of 2.99 per cent.

Furthermore, the adult social care precept will also increase by 2 per cent.

Currently, the average annual cost of council tax for a Band D property in Northumberland is £1,721 with an adult social care precept charge of £264.30. Under the increases, this would increase to £1,772.46 and £269.28 – an overall rise of £56.54 a year.

The council is yet to publish the final version of its budget, which will need to be voted on by full council.

However draft budget proposals were presented to an all-member scrutiny meeting on Monday (January 29), which did not contain the council tax figures.

However, when pressed by Liberal Democrat leader Jeff Reid, the council’s finance chief did concede that the rise was likely.

Cllr Reid said: “There is no mention of how much you propose council tax to go up. Before you say ‘we haven’t decided yet’, you have made assumptions across this whole budget, we’ve got pages and pages here.

“Why is there not a big statement saying ‘The assumption is we will put the council tax up by X and the adult social precept up by Y’? You’ve made all sorts of assumptions.

“Why have you not put a statement in here saying we ‘we think the council tax needs to go up by 2.99 per cent and the adult social care precept needs to go up by 2 per cent’? I want to see how much the administration intends to put up our council tax.”

The council’s section 151 officer, Jan Willis, responded to the former council leader.

She said: “This is an updated report for cabinet. An earlier report made it clear that we budgeted on a basis of 2.99 per cent on council tax and 2 per cent on adult social care.

“That information was in an earlier report to cabinet. A further report to cabinet on February 13 will bring all of this together. I take your point that it is not explicit in this report, but this is building on a series of reports and briefings.”

The leader of the council, Cllr Glen Sanderson, defended the planned increases, pointing out that the council would not be able to protect frontline services and deliver programmes such as free town centre parking without increasing revenue in the face of skyrocketing inflation.

He said: “I can tell you we did look at an early stage with a lower base. I’m not, on my watch, going to allow us to lose money year on year on year, from having lower council tax until I hear from residents that is what they want – and I hear they like the level of services they get.”

Under Government rules, councils are allowed to level a maximum council tax rise of 2.99 per cent and a 2 per cent increase in the adult social care precept without having to put the increase to residents in a referendum. The final version of the budget will be voted on by full council in February.