Lowest council tax rise in 13 years
Councillors voted to increase council tax by the lowest amount since 1997 in a meeting on Tuesday 23 February.
The rise will be 2.4% for 2010/11. The total rise in Council Tax for 2010/11 will be 2.33% when the precepts of the Police and Fire Authorities are included. This rise is below the 2.5% rise in State Pensions that has already been announced.
The rise means Band A households (41% of total Coventry homes) will pay about 43p a week more for council services and Band B households (30% of total) will pay about 50p a week more.
It means the overall net budget for the council in 2010/11 will be £269,394,000. Councillor Kevin Foster, Deputy Leader of the Council, said: "The whole of the public sector is facing significant financial challenges over the next few years and will have to make some tough spending decisions. Yet at the same time many hard working Coventry families are also struggling with their own bills and we cannot just pass costs onto them in the form of increased Council Tax rises.
"Our priorities will be to protect the frontline services that really matter to people, such as increasing the budget for Children's Social Care by £1m, yet we will have to work to take out inefficiencies and review what services we continue to provide. In particular we will have to become more focussed on the outcomes of services delivered for local people, rather than the process of doing so."
