Thousands of residents across Rutland have received their Council Tax Statement this week from Rutland County Council. The impact of February's Budget Council Meeting has hit home. A rise of 2.99% is seen in real terms with a breakdown of how public money is being spent.

This past year has seen huge uncertainty with high unemployment and many employers losing a vast income, and consequently being forced to furlough staff. With the recent Budget announcement from Central Government capping employees tax allowance at £12,500, residents are essentially worse off financially.

Rutland County Council were permitted by Central Government back in January to raise council tax up to 5%. It was originally proposed by the Council that there was to be nearly a 4% rise, but sixteen Councillors opposed the suggestion. 2.99% was finally agreed upon.

Despite this rise, resident's will be getting less for their money with the former Cabinet member for Finance, Gordon Brown stating "there will be a reduction in services over the next year."

What with a £2.6million deficit, savings will obviously still have to be found.

Throughout January, Rutland County Council invited local residents to share their views on the draft budget.

Councillor Gordon Brown noted that 179 members of the public had responded, a significant increase in previous years.

The majority of comments were not in favor of the rise. A resident from Oakham stated: "A lot of households already struggle with affording council tax and were also impacted by inflation. Pay freezes for public sector workers, furlough and redundancies will also affect the public's ability to pay current band requirements. This increase will not help, when there is already a real danger of people not being able to eat properly without food banks and community kitchens."

A resident from Whissendine said: "I feel the budget is going to be hard to meet and the council tax increase is fair."

The Leader of the Council, Oliver Hemsley stated: "The government needs to understand that its current approach to funding local councils is unsustainable and simply passes costs on to local taxpayers. This isn't fair on residents and could put local services at risk in the long term'.