Cambridgeshire County Council will increase its share of tax by 4.99%

The joint administration have agreed a council tax rise of £4.99%

Cambridgeshire County Council has increased its share of council tax by the maximum it is allowed to.

At a full council meeting on Tuesday, councillors approved the budget for the 2024/25 financial year.

It included a council tax rise of 4.99% - 2% of which would be used for adult social services - and said it would raise £17.5m.

It meant an average band D household would be charged an extra £76.95 per year.

Residents in the county have already been told they face rises of £36 for the mayoral precept, which would pay for improved bus services, and there was also an increase of £12.96 for the police service.

There will also be increases for the fire service and district councils which would be announced over the next few weeks.

The county council said it proposed to spend £57m on sustaining critical adults and children's social care, and that it would invest £23m into improving the county's roads and pavements.

'Most challenging budget'

It added it would spend £3m on continuing the school holiday food vouchers for families on low incomes. The scheme had previously been funded by the central government household support funding, but the county council said it expected this to be cut.

While the vouchers would continue, the amount families received is due to be reduced from £180 to £135.

The authority said it also planned to spend £2.2m on anti-poverty initiatives.

Liberal Democrat leader of the council Lucy Nethsingha said: "This has been the most challenging budget round I have faced as leader of this council.

"Across the country councils have had to issue Section 114 notices, those are notices warning that the council may not be able to set a balanced budget, at an unprecedented scale.

"All councils are only a year or two away from not being able to set a balanced budget and, as with households that are on the edge, it would only take a small thing to send any council finances over the precipice of rising debt charges and the inability to provide core statutory services."

The county council is run by a joint administration of Liberal Democrats, Labour and Independent members.

The Conservative opposition group, led by Steve Count accused the joint administration of "blaming everything else possible" for the problems being faced.

It proposed an alternative budget which included asking for more money to be spent on highway maintenance.

He said there was money in council reserves that could be used.

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