Rutland residents will have to shell out an extra £68 to pay their council tax bill if budget proposals are approved.

Rutland County Council says it needs to impose a 3.99 percent tax rise in order to ensure the authority's finances remain in good health.

Under the proposals – which have gone out to consultation and will be decided by the full council in February – a Band D tax payer would pay an extra £68 a year or £1.30 a week.

The rise is made up of a 1.99 percent increase on the council tax rate plus an additional two percent adult social care precept. 

A report considered by the authority's conservative cabinet on Tuesday (Jan 21) said that with future Government funding levels uncertain it needed to raise council tax rates.

The council currently has £8.8m in reserves.

It said: "The council is predicting a gap in funding of circa £1.4m by 2022/23 if no further action is taken.

"The chart shows that by 2023/24, reserves will be below the minimum level needed and by 25/26, the council will have no reserves left if it takes no action."

The report says that if the proposed rise in April did not happen the authority would receive £5.9m less in council tax over five years.

The budget proposed to provide services for Rutland in 2021/21 is £38.9m.

This is £2.5m more than the 2019/20 budget. £1.6m of the extra budget is due to 'demand pressures' such as having more elderly residents in residential care and an increase in the number of foster care cases.

The council is proposing to use £302,000 from reserves to balance its 2020/21 budget.

The authority's officers are also in the middle of preparing an emergency budget.

A spokesman for the authority said the emergency budget was a 'contingency exercise' in which officers are considering how the council might respond to any further funding cuts and it may implement some of the identified options at a later date on agreement of the councillors.

Currently 80 per cent of the services provided by the authority are paid for from local council taxes.

Speaking at the cabinet meeting finance portfolio holder Coun Gordon Brown said the authority will be lobbying Government for a fairer funding deal.

Rutland Band D council tax payers were charged £1,705 this year compared to £754 in Westminster.