Lancaster City Council sets 2010/11 Council Tax Rate
LANCASTER City Council will increase its portion of Council Tax by 3.75% for 2010/11.
In real terms this mean households will pay an average of an extra £6.95 a year – or 13p a week – to the city council from April 2010.
The increase sets the council’s budget for 2010/11 at £24.74million.
At the start of the current financial year the council’s budget was projected to be nearly £25.765million, which would have resulted in a Council Tax increase of 17.1%.
Setting Council Tax at 3.75% has meant stringent housekeeping and a review of the way the council provides its services to make sure they are both efficient and effective.
Coun Stuart Langhorn, leader of Lancaster City Council, said: “Deciding at what level to set our Council Tax increase is always a delicate balancing act between keeping the amount people pay to a minimum while providing a good range of services that the public tell us are important to them.
“At the start of the financial year we were projecting an increase of more than 17% and it is through the hard work of both Cabinet and officers that we have been able to get this down to 3.75%.
“In doing so we have identified a number of ways in which the council can do things differently and more efficiently while maintaining many of the services that the public most appreciate. The 3.75% figure is also in line with the feedback from the budget consultation workshops with local residents.”
While as the billing authority Lancaster City Council collects Council Tax, it only receives around 13% of the total bill to spend on its services.
Of the remaining the majority goes to Lancashire County Council (74%), with precepts from Lancashire Police Authority (9%) and Lancashire Combined Fire Authority (4%) making up the rest of the bill.
Date Published: 05/02/10