Council tax bills across Essex may rise by 15 per cent next year, a leading councillor has claimed.

Because Essex has lost out under a new formula to determine how Government funding is divided up across the country, there could be more big tax rises every year for the foreseeable future.

The Government has told Essex County Council the grant it gets to help provide services will rise by 3.72 per cent next year, compared to an average of a six per cent rise for similar councils.

This means any gap between income and spending will have to be made up by council tax increases or cuts in services.

The county council was already planning to increase its precept - the amount on council tax bills that goes to it by 4.5 per cent.

But now its Conservative administration is warning bills will probably go up by a lot more to cover the shortfall in funding from the Government.

Speaking at a meeting of the council's ruling cabinet yesterday Rodney Bass, cabinet member for finance and resources, said: "There are considerable problems ahead, anyone who thinks this settlement is good news for Essex must be living on another planet.

"We're staring at some sort of council tax increase of about 15 per cent."

Council leader Lord Hanningfield said the most worrying development was that the new formula for calculating grants settlements could mean substantial council tax increases for several years to come.

Paul Sztumpf, leader of the opposition Labour group, said: "It's not quite the disaster that it could have been."

But all parties pledged to work together to lobby the Government for more funding.

Council tax increases will vary across Essex because some district councils, which also levy a proportion of council tax, have done better than others under the Government grant settlement.

Published Tuesday, December 17, 2002

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