With the news that Herts County Council agreed their budget for 2021/22, Hitchin Nub News explains how and why a rise in Council Tax has been agreed.

With an increase of 2% for the adult social care precept and an additional 1.99% for general council tax, councillors voted for a total increase to council tax of 3.99% - which works out an extra £1.08 a week for average Band D households.

However, the county council has decided to not take up the option of increasing the adult social care precept to 3% this year and will instead collect the remaining 1% next year in 2022/23.

The key areas which require funding highlighted within the budget are as follows:

1) Supporting the vulnerable and Covid recovery:

This includes funding for additional numbers of people needing support and increases in the National Living Wage, in addition to providing the voluntary sector with an enhanced package to support Covid recovery.

This will be broadly met by the extra 2% in social care precept. Investment will also be made in safeguarding to support vulnerable individuals in care.

This is on top of further investment to enable care worker pay increases and funding for the domestic violence service, and to provide support for the future transformation of disability services

2) Protecting the environment:

This budget includes £10m investment as part of our climate change response, providing additional capital funding to improve drainage in response to highways flooding brought about by increasing and changing rainfall patterns.

There will be an additional £7m investment to fund the roll-out of 20mph speed limits, in line with the speed management strategy approved by cabinet in December 2020, as well as an extra £3m investment in active travel schemes and extra funding for winter maintenance;

3) Making Hertfordshire more sustainable:

Including a total of £12m investment in sustainable projects to significantly drive forward delivery of the Sustainable Hertfordshire strategy previously approved by Cabinet in March 2020;

4) Meeting the challenges of a growing county:

A £2m investment fund has been established to progress growth and infrastructure work to put the council at the forefront of being able to bid for government and other external funding.

......

In light of the above Ralph Sangster, Cabinet Member for Resources and Performance, explained: "Despite facing unprecedented pressures as a result of the pandemic, we are a well-financially managed authority and we are therefore able to approve an investment led-budget today, which allows us to invest in key areas and continue to deliver frontline services which matter dearly to our residents.

"Although it was a difficult decision to increase council tax this year, we wish to ensure that we can meet the increasing demands on our adult social care services.

"However, we have taken the decision not to apply the full 3% increase for the adult social care precept, but instead to defer the remaining 1% to next year, reducing the council tax burden for residents as best we can, while enabling investment in these critical services which matter for our county."

Council tax bills for the new financial year will be issued by Hertfordshire's district councils from early March.

You can find out more about how we spend your council tax on their website here.