There is "no realistic alternative" to a council tax hike next year for North Herts, a senior councillor has said.

Debating a draft budget for the 2023-24 financial year on Tuesday, December 13, the council's cabinet agreed they must raise their rates by the highest amount possible – three per cent – from April.

Raising council tax is one measure which would help the authority plug a £200,000 hole in next year's budget – and a £2.5million net savings requirement between now and 2027-28.

Councillor Steve Jarvis (LD, Weston and Sandon), who sits on the cabinet, warned councils which do not raise council tax when they really need to risk a fate similar to Northamptonshire County Council, which declared itself effectively bankrupt in 2018 and was disbanded after facing a budget gap around the £60m mark.

Cllr Jarvis said: "Clearly nobody likes paying more council tax but I think we have to recognise that councils which have not increased tax when there was a serious need to, like Northamptonshire, have just got themselves into a position where they aren't able to provide the service which people need.

"It is inevitably the most vulnerable members of society that are impacted most by that.

"Whereas one would wish the rate of inflation was much lower and there was no need to put council tax up by a significant amount, I think in the circumstances, there is no realistic alternative."

The central government gave district councils the power to raise council tax by a maximum of £5 per month on a band D "average" property or three per cent, whichever is greater, in the November Autumn Statement.

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This is up from a previous cap of £5 or two per cent.

North Herts Council believes that by using this power – and by assuming the number of council tax-paying properties rises by approximately 0.5 per cent each year – it will generate £12.77million in income in 2023/24.