A tax reduction scheme for Chiltern residents will be unchanged for the next financial year, despite an opposition councillor's concerns.

The Council Tax Reduction Scheme, which lowers the amount of money some residents pay each year, was introduced by Chiltern District Council earlier this year.

Yesterday the authority's cabinet voted to recommend no changes to the scheme when it needs to be renewed in the new year.

But Lib Dem councillor Alan Bacon - who said it would "make the poor poorer" when the plans were first put forward last year - said he remains concerned at the number of people who have fallen behind in paying the council.

The most recent set of available figures date from September, when they were last discussed by the council.

Cllr Bacon said at yesterday's cabinet meeting: "I remain concerned about this scheme and the operation of it.

"If you dig into the figures, 45 per cent of working age people were at that point [September] in arrears; 48 per cent of protected groups were in arrears. These are very substantial numbers. Not to be at all complacent about it, we need to be very concerned about that.

"We need some sort of breakdown of how people in different council tax bands are affected by it. People in higher council tax bands are potentially affected hugely and we don't know if they are substantially in arrears or not because we've seen no breakdown."

Nicola Ellis, the council's head of customer service, said: "That's something we'd be interested in when we have a full year's worth of data. We will pursue that at the end of the financial year.

"It should be noted some of these people may well be in arrears but we may have made payment arrangements to cover that, and there are people in those figures who will have consequently caught up."

She added: "We are working very closely with the Citizen's Advice Bureau looking at people's circumstances. We are not automatically referring them to the bailiffs - we are not going in hard."

Those eligible for the scheme have an 80 per cent reduction in the amount of tax they pay, while residents classed as vulnerable get a 90 per cent reduction.

Calls for the top bracket to be made 95 per cent were rejected when the scheme was agreed in January to replace the previous Council Tax Benefit.