SOUTH Somerset District Council (SSDC) has increased its Council Tax precept by £5 for next year.

Councillors agreed the tax hike at SSDC's budget meeting last week, and said it decided to increase the bill for homeowners, which works out as an average increase of five per cent, in the face of Government funding cuts.

The increase by SSDC is in line with the other councils and authorities that charge a precept on the council tax, meaning on average, homeowners will pay an extra £60 per year.

Somerset County Council has increased its precept by £43.15, or 3.99 per cent, and the PCC for Avon and Somerset and the fire service are also increasing their charges by 1.99 per cent.

It means for an average Band D property in the district, homeowners will now pay £60 more per year in total, an increase of 3.85 per cent.

Cllr Peter Seib, portfolio holder for finance and legal services, said: “Local Government has been hit hard across the board, despite inflation and other unavoidable cost increases.

"Central Government wants us to be self-sufficient in 2019 and so SSDC is cutting back-office processing costs dramatically through a programme of organisational and technology transformation.

"This is not enough and we are also counting on finding new ways to generate income using our assets.

"Even with both of these approaches, there is still a significant 2017 budget shortfall that has to be made up by increasing Council Tax in line with the Minister’s expectations.”

The £5 increase also includes the charge for the Somerset Rivers Authority.

The Government has reduced the support grant it gives to councils and will eliminate its Revenue Support Grant, which was extra funding for local authorities, completely by 2019.

For SSDC, this means an immediate funding cut of £0.9m and by 2020/21, total savings of £4.7m will be required, including an annual tariff of £330,000 which has to be handed back to central government for redistribution.

In addition to the proposed tax rise, councillors agreed to start a transformation programme within the back office of the authority, and hope it will save £2 million in the next three years.

Cllr Ric Pallister, leader of the council, said: "The financial challenge facing all Local Authorities is massive and South Somerset is no different.

"In its calculations the Government has assumed all councils will be raising their Council Tax year on year by the maximum they have authorised without a referendum.

"SSDC’s share of the Council Tax bill is quite small and the £5 per annum rise will only generate around £300k per annum.

"Rather than taking the easy route of cutting services, all our efforts are being directed towards finding more efficient ways of delivering those services and through better investment returns to balance the books. There is no simple answer, business as usual is not an option and thus the changes we are making are revolutionary."