Council tax rise proposed in face of £5m budget gap

Councillor Andrew Jarvis said inflation had been among factors affecting the authority's financial position

A local authority facing a £5m budget shortfall is proposing raising its council tax by nearly 5%.

Westmorland and Furness Council, in Cumbria, said it needed to increase the rate next year to meet the escalating costs of providing services.

It plans to raise its share of the bill by 2.99% and implement the 2% increase approved by the government for adult social care, raising the total by 4.99%.

The council's cabinet member for finance, Andrew Jarvis, said it needed "to find ways of closing gaps" to maintain services.

"Like households, we've faced high levels of inflation in terms of many of our costs," he explained.

"Last year's increase was well below the rate of inflation.

"So, frankly, we have very little choice, if we are going to balance the books, other than to have that increase this year."

'Fairly confident'

The council has not released other details about how it plans to deal with its budget shortfall.

Mr Jarvis said it had decided not to "spend a large amount of time and resources" on trying to reduce the gap before it knew the full details of the government's final funding settlement in a few weeks' time.

The council was hoping its cash reserves would raise more interest while its borrowing remained at a fixed rate, he said.

It was also looking at bringing some services, such as school transport, in-house to reduce costs.

But Mr Jarvis added the authority was "fairly confident" it was achievable without "significant impacts on services".

A public consultation is running until 19 January.

It is a legal requirement for councils to achieve a balanced budget.