COUNCIL tax will rise by almost five per cent this year after the council’s executive board approved budget plans.

The tax hike, which includes a 3 per cent increase for the government’s social care programme, will bring the annual bill to £1,315.90 for residents in band D. This is around £60 more (depending on which parish they live in) per household.

But councillors said Warrington remains one of the cheapest authorities in the area for residents’ tax bill.

The council’s executive board member for corporate finance, Cllr Russ Bowden, said: “We continue to work hard to mitigate the impact of the cuts from the government.

“However, the financial pressures being placed upon us means there are some difficult decisions to be made.

“While we have been nationally recognised for some of our innovative approaches to investing and raising money - and we continue to have one of the lowest council tax rates in the north west - the demands on us to find more money are increasing.

“The council tax increase will help us meet growing demand on services as people live longer and our population continues to grow.

“It will also help us protect vital services for vulnerable people, such as social care for children and adults, while also doing our best to maintain other services such as waste and recycling collection, street cleaning and roads maintenance.”

He highlighted the council’s use of capital to drive revenue for day-to-day services: “There has been fairly ambitious purchasing of commercial property, the best analogy I can think of is ‘buy-to-let’. The recent purchase of, for example, the Matalan site, could generate as much as £400,000 a year.”

The council has already saved £92 million but needs to find another £41 million in savings or revenue generation by 2020.

The plans also include a 1.98 per cent tax rise bringing the total increase to 4.98 per cent.

It will bring in an extra £4 million for the council to help it maintain essential services in the face of central government cuts.

The executive board approved a proposed capital programme for 2017/18 of £1.18 billion which will be used to invest in long-term projects or to buy assets that can be used to generate income.

Capital funding comes from grants and low interest loans and is not taken from the same pot of money used for services such as bin collections or salaries.

Cllr Hitesh Patel added: “We are still one of the cheapest local authorities.

“Maybe cheap is not the right word, but we still have to deliver the exact same services that other residents in other boroughs get, but with less funding.”