Devon County Council to increase tax by nearly 3%

Devon County Council has approved a council tax rise of nearly 3%.

The increase, which means the yearly bill for a band D property will go up by £45.18 from April, was approved as the council's leader warned that "austerity has not gone away".

The council's share of council tax is set to increase by 2.99%, including 1% to fund adult social care and 1.99% for general services.

It will help fund a spending increase of almost £50m in next year's budget.

The increase excludes rises to other parts of the tax that fund district councils, police and the fire service, the Local Democracy Reporting Service reported.

Most of the money will be spent on children's and adult services, with the total spending at county hall rising to about £629m.

Presenting the budget at a full council meeting, Conservative council leader John Hart said it was "the largest increase in spending to support our most vulnerable residents that I can ever remember".

Defending the proposal, he added: "Austerity has not gone away.

"Covid has come, which has made an immense difference to everything ... We have gone through, and we are still going through, a change in this country that I've never really seen.

"Having said that, we as local government have got to balance our books."

The budget was approved by 35 votes to 12, with seven abstentions.  

Follow BBC News South West on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected].