HOUSEHOLDERS in Chiltern district will have to shoulder a council tax hike four times the rate of inflation, even though the council has £11 million in the bank.

Tory-led Chiltern District Council which has refused to delve into its piggy bank to soften the blow has been berated for failing on its election pledge to keep down spiralling costs.

The authority has blamed Buckinghamshire County Council's pension fund saga for the mammoth 9.1 per cent increase, which will see taxpayers in average Band D houses shelling out £107 a year for district services.

Cllr Peter Jones (Lib Dem, Chartridge) said: "People of the Chiltern district are entitled to say to this council 'What's wrong with the money you have already got?' because as we all know this council has balances of between £11 million and £12 million at any one time.

"Somehow we think it's all right to charge four times the rate of inflation."

The Government has said council tax should not go up by more than 6.6 per cent, but Chiltern has highlighted a number of budget pressures contributing to the rise, including the Government's decision to award no means-based revenue support grant, huge costs incurred by Best Value inspections, interest from the council's savings dwindling year-by-year, an increase in fly-tipping and abandoned cars and increased insurance costs since September 11.

Government demands on improving service without extra funding, costs associated with boundary changes and parking decriminalisation, and the Jubilee celebrations will place further burdens on the taxpayer this year.

Council leader Don Phillips said by last October all this had been taken into account and the rise was still only likely to be two per cent until the council was hit by news that it would have to increase employers' pension contributions by £430,000 a year following revelations that the county council-administered pension fund had under-performed.

Cllr Phillips said: "Our revenue expenditure this coming year will increase by 2.1 per cent. We really are not going on a big spending spree. In Chiltern a Band D householder's tax will go up by £8.92 in a year under 20p a week."

Cllr Phillips said taking more money from savings to cover the increase would lead to those savings accruing even less interest possibly leaving the council worse off.

But Cllr Jones rounded on the Tories, saying: "At the last election they all pledged to minimise council tax. This is not minimising council tax this is the maximum you can get away with."

February 14, 2002 13:38