Cumbria County Council has set its sights on keeping council tax increases below five per cent next year in spite of "challenging" conditions.
A meeting of the full council in Kendal today heard that the county could be facing a tight budget for 2006/7 with indications from the government leading council budget planners to conclude that funding increases across all services other than schools may have to be limited to two per cent.
Projections made earlier this year suggested that the Cumbria County Council would have to find savings of some £3.8 million in 2006/7 in order to contain the projected council tax increase to 4.6 per cent.
has managed in recent years to safeguard services to the people of Cumbria while consistently set some of the lowest council tax increases in the county. We aim to continue building on that record in the years to come."
Budgets next year are facing national pressures including possible changes to the way central Government calculates the Revenue Support Grant. Changes to the way in which schools are funded which could see the county council headline revenue budget figure fall from £503 million for 2005/6 to below £300 million for 2006/7 with seperate funds being ring-fenced for schools.
Local pressures, such as the need to deal with establishing the new Children's Services directorate and increased waste disposal costs are also affecting budget planning.
The council is not expecting a repeat of the a £1 billion pound boost for local government finance across the country provided by Chancellor Gordon Brown in 2005.
Joan Stocker, deputy leader of the council and cabinet member for budget issues, said: "We make no bones about it - it looks like setting next year's budget will be extremely tough. There are many pressures on funding at the moment and I do not think we can expect any extra help from the chancellor next year. However, this council