Council tax to go up as budget bites in Wakefield

Council chiefs in Wakefield have announced a two per cent tax raise - and more job losses - in the coming year.

The authority has laid out its plans to save £61 million over the next two years as part of its budget report, which was being debated by senior councillors last night.

It is hoped that £23m of those savings will come in 2014-15.

The raft of cost-cutting measures being proposed include:

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• 1,400 job losses, to add to the 1,000 posts that have already been lost, taking £1.5m off the monthly pay bill.

• £10m from adults, health, and communities, including the transformation of adult social care and how these services are commissioned

• £250,000 from schools support

• £400,000 as a result of the end of the grant to parish councils.

Coun Peter Box, leader of Wakefield Council, said: ““We will do our best, but we can’t offer any guarantees.

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“Next year will see us making significant savings, but mostly buying some time for the major cuts to follow in 2015-16 and beyond. I hate to say it, but there is no doubt that service quality will start to suffer. This is the reality we face.”

Meanwhile Hambleton Council in North Yorkshire is pegging its local levy for the fourth year running after it agreed to take the Goverment’s council-tax freezing grant this year.

The move avoids a £2.24 year increase for a Band D property.