Lowest council tax bills hit £1,000

Local authorities are facing unprecedented pressure to keep bills low this year, with many householders struggling to make ends meet due to the credit crunch, pay freezes and job losses.

Scarborough Council is to vote on increasing its share of the tax bill by two per cent, much less than the 3.7 per cent in the last financial year.

But it will still mean more financial pain – particularly those living in high-value homes, some with the biggest mortgages, who face paying more than 3,000 a year towards services.

Scarborough Council will set its amounts of tax for each band for the 2010-11 financial year during a meeting of the full authority on Friday.

Nationally, town halls are being forecast to set some of the lowest increases since council tax replaced the community charge, or poll tax, in 1993 according to analysis of council budgets.

In real-terms many bills will go down slightly.

In England, the average rise for 2010-11 will be 1.6 per cent, taking the council tax bill to 1,194 per household, the Local Government Association estimates.

But all charge payers in North Yorkshire have already been hit by the looming bill for restoring the county's rural road network, which was severely damaged in many areas by the winter freeze.

The county council has already announced a 2.94 per cent rise, a jump on its original target of 2.5 per cent, due to the need to repair all the potholes and other ravages of the sub-zero temperatures.

Added to that is the police precept rise of 2.7 per cent and the fire service's two per cent – adding up to an overall increase in council tax of 2.74 per cent, which does not include costs to areas with parish or town councils.

According to the final report on the council tax, a family living in an "average" Band D property will pay 42.70 extra overall for 2010-11. Some residents will pay more than 85 extra.

It means the bill for someone living in a Band A property, the lowest value bracket, will be 1,023 while someone living in Band H, the top bracket, will be 3,070.

The bill for Band D householders will be 1,535.

Officials have underlined that most of the cash goes to North Yorkshire County Council to run services such as education, libraries, social

services and roads, with the county's police and fire service also taking a share each for 999 services.

The tax is made up of five areas – 68 per cent of the money goes to county council services, 14 per cent to borough councils, four per cent to the fire service, 13 per cent to the police, and one per cent to parish and town councils.

It was noted when last year's Scarborough rise of per cent per cent was agreed the increase could have been lower if there were not additional burdens on the authority's expenditure including concessionary fares.

Scarborough Council head of finance and asset manager Nick Edwards has also stressed there are a number of payment options apart from the normal monthly direct debit.

n Meanwhile, Richmondshire councillors have approved a council tax rise of 4.61 a year.

Members of the district council opted for the 9p a week

rise bringing the charge for a Band D property to 188.93 a year.

When charges from North Yorkshire County Council, police and fire authorities plus parishes are added the average bill for a Band D property will be 1,513.06 a year.