Norfolk council tax bills to increase by almost 6%

A budget has been agreed that would see council tax bills in Norfolk rise by 5.99%.

The Conservative-run county council is expected to rubber-stamp the increase next month when its full cabinet meets.

The rise follows a government decision to allow local authorities to raise council tax by an extra 1% for 2018/19.

It means the annual bill for a Band D property in Norfolk will increase by an average £75 a year to £1,322.

But expected demands from district councils and the police could push this figure higher, with many households paying an extra £100 in council tax.

Proposals to cut bus subsidies by £500,000 and gritting runs have now been dropped because of the 1% increase, which would raise an extra £4m for services, the authority said.

There will be extra money for adult social care and children's services, but the council said it still had to find savings of more than £100m over the next four years and was planning to "re-model" many of its services.

This may include moving children's centres or reducing their opening hours.

There will also be a push to help older people live in their own homes rather than care homes.

Before the government decision, the council was considering a 4.9% rise. Its net budget for the next financial year is £388.799m.

Leader Cliff Jordan said despite still having to find cuts still of about £100m over the next five years, it was a "good budget".

"When you've got government reducing at one end, demand increasing at the other, you've got to be very inventive in the middle," he said.

But Liberal Democrat group leader Dan Roper said more cuts were inevitable.

"They want to make something like four times that level of savings next year and they still haven't fully worked out the details," he said.