Suffolk councillor says they need every pound of council tax hike

In December, the Labour government announced how much it was providing to local authorities.

Local Government Minister Jim McMahon said £69bn was being made available to councils, which represented a 3.5% “real terms increase” in spending power.

Earlier this month when the Conservative administration in Suffolk revealed its budget plans, the leader of the opposition said it was “absolutely no surprise”.

Andrew Stringer, who is leader of the Green, Liberal Democrat and Independent Group, said: “We have a broken social care model which no government has been able to fix and education funding nowhere near matches the costs involved.”

The draft budget will still need to be debated and voted on at a full council meeting on 13 February.

The tax increase of 4.99% is the maximum amount that councils – ones which have a social care remit – are permitted by central government to impose.