East Northamptonshire Council has been able to hold down its share of council tax increases to just £7.40 per year for Band D properties. This is without cutting services and will still allow the Council to make significant investment in service improvements.

The Council collects the tax for Northamptonshire County Council, the Police Authority and Town and Parish Councils. Most of the bill, and this year’s increase, is down to the money collected on behalf of these organisations.

The County Council has increased its share of the bill by £58.30 and the Police Authority by £24.84; the overall increase increase is £93.57 for this year.

Councillor John Richardson, Leader of East Northamptonshire Council, said:

‘We made a commitment to our council tax payers to keep our share of the council tax down to a reasonable level, and I feel it’s a promise we have kept over the last four years. Once again we have agreed a stable and sustainable budget, with a very modest increase in our share of the council tax bill. Our value for money budget delivers new investment in our community, a range of service improvements, no cuts and provides the Council with a firm foundation for future developments.’

‘About 2/3rds of the extra money we are raising will be used to fund the cost of improvements in our recycling schemes introduced back in December 2002. The rest of the extra money will go to pay for the extra tax burden placed on the Council by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in his budget last year.’

‘We have been able to fund a number of other service improvements such as planning services and our corporate capacity to continue to deliver quality services, all without passing this cost on to the tax payer. Against this background, I share the view of the recent IDeA report that said this Council has the potential to become something really special.’