Council tax could rise in Nottinghamshire

Mansfield District Council may have frozen their council tax but Nottinghamshire County Council said that residents could increase by 1.75 per cent to pay for a shortfall in funds for social care.

Mansfield District Council collects council tax on behalf of Nottinghamshire County Council, Nottinghamshire Police and Crime Commissioner, Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue, Town and Parish Councils, as well as a charge for its own services.

A decision by Mansfield District Council to freeze the charge for its own services was approved last week.

However, Nottinghamshire County Council said it needs an extra £14.8 million in funding for social care services to meet a high demand.

The County Council’s main source of Government funding, the Revenue Support Grant, has been cut by 30.7 per cent this financial year.

In response to the social care funding crisis, the Government is providing an additional £2.8m Adult Social Care Grant to the local authority in 2017/18, but this is at the expense of other public services in the area, with all but £100,000 of the grant being taken from New Homes Bonus funding which had already been earmarked for Councils in the county.

It is proposed that the Nottinghamshire County Council uses £27m from its reserves to plug the remaining budget gap as well as increasing council tax, which would equate to around 99p a year.

Councillor David Kirkham, chairman of the finance and property committee, said a long- term strategy for social care is ‘desperately needed’.

He said: “If we are to continue providing the care services that children, older people and the disabled desperately need, we are left with no option other than to recommend that we implement the social care levy and council tax increase.”

The proposal will be discussed at a council budget meeting on February 8, but final approval will not be made until February 23.

The precept set by the Police and Crime Commissioner is still under consideration.