Councils have been setting their annual budgets over the last few weeks. This includes the difficult decision of whether to raise council tax and by how much.
The budget covers everything that a council does from care of the elderly and disabled people, social workers for vulnerable children and bin collections. But town halls are increasingly relying on raising council tax to balance the books.
This year, local authorities are allowed to raise council tax by up to 5 pc from April which is made up of a 2.99 pc increase plus an additional 2 pc ringfenced for adult social care only. Any rises higher than this requires a referendum – but none of the councils in the city-region decided to go down this route.
