TAXPAYERS in West Berkshire now ‘owe £1,277 of debt each’ through council borrowing, as a council tax rise of four per cent is confirmed.

From April, council tax will rise by two per cent while the adult social care precept will rise by 1.99 per cent. The rise was confirmed after councillors approved the budget at a meeting of the full West Berkshire Council on March 3.

The budget also included increasing the amount the council borrows, to pay for public services and invest in local infrastructure.

Councillor Ross Mackinnon (Con, Bradfield), lead for finance, said: “The council’s external borrowing is kept under regular and close review, to ensure that it is manageable and sustainable.”

He said the amount of money spent on interest and lower repayments will increase “very slightly”, from 11.4 per cent of total revenue spending to 12.6 per cent.

But opposition councillors raised concerns that this was too much.

Cllr Jeff Brooks (Lib Dem, Thatcham West) said: “For the person on the street, our borrowing is going from £293 million up to £313 million, netting down to £205 million. Do you know what that means?

“It means that every single person, man, woman and child, owes through this council £1,277. That’s about £5,000 a household, or £11 million in the revenue budget on servicing debt. We are quite worried about this trajectory.”

Cllr Lee Dillon (Lib Dem, Thatcham North East), leader of the opposition, said: “This shows a fundamental failure of the government policy, where local councils and services aren’t funded enough.

“Actually, what is happening is the debt is transferring from the central government onto local taxpayers. That’s the legacy of a Conservative government centrally starving local councils of money.”

Both Cllr Mackinnon and the leader of the council, Cllr Lynne Doherty (Con, Speen), said they regretted having to raise council tax. Cllr Mackinnon blamed the “most challenging financial environment” over the last decade on the Labour government — which left power 10 years ago.

Part of the reason for the year-on-year council tax hikes is due to the rapidly increasing amount spent on social care, according to Cllr David Marsh (Green, Wash Common).

Cllr Marsh said: “The government says to every local authority in the country, having paid lip service to local democracy, you can [increase council tax by 3.99 per cent] — because we can’t organise a proper strategy about how to deal with adult social care, in case it’s unpopular with the voters.”

More than half of the council’s revenue budget is now spent on social care, and more than £50 million on adult social care. Cllr Graham Bridgman (Con, Burghfield & Mortimer), lead for adult social care, called on the government to hurry up with the long-awaited consultation on how to fund care.

He said: “The government needs to get its finger out, get the green paper and sort it. We need to have a proper national debate on how we fund this stuff. These are vast amounts of money. The majority of this money comes from our own residents.”