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Today I announced this year's proposed Council Tax
increase of 3.9%. None of us want to see an increase in Council Tax
and it is one of the subjects that fills my mailbag quicker than
any other.
To provide our services - care for an increasingly ageing
population; keeping 5,000 miles of roads and 4,000 miles of
pavements repaired; educating 220,000 children - we rely on funding
direct from government and, to a lesser extent, Council Tax.
All the time government gives us a grant that does not match the
inflationary pressures on our services we will have a substantial
funding shortfall. While we work hard to make savings wherever we
can, unfortunately, Council Tax increases have to fill the
remaining gap.
In the last four years, by being extremely efficient and
entrepreneurial, we have saved £90 million and reinvested money
into public services, but it gets harder and harder every year to
reduce spending while protecting front-line services. There is only
so far you can stretch the elastic before it snaps.
When the County Council agrees the budget on 19 February I hope
that we will have had assurances from government that our unmet
costs for looking after unaccompanied asylum-seeking children will
be reimbursed so we do not have to increase Council Tax.
We have based our budget on the assumption that government will
agree with us that looking after these children, who in many cases
have been through traumatic experiences, is a national issue and
not one that should fall to Kent residents alone.
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