Budget plans revealed as public services set out 2015 Council Tax plans

But while Whitehall ministers are adamant that they want to seen another freeze in the amount of Council Tax we pay each year, some local services fear that doing so would not be possible without seriously damaging frontline services.

Councils, police and fire services are able to set their own figures for how much revenue they should take from each Council Tax paying household. This is known as the precept.

The Government has made a grant available to organisations that opt to not increase their precept in the year ahead. This grant is equivelant to the sum that would have been raised if the precept had been hiked by 1%.

Organisations are free to ignore the Governments grant and set whatever increase they like, but any increase of 2% or more would automatically trigger a local referendum whereby residents would be asked to approve the increase. In practice this means that hikes are effectively capped at just under the 2% mark.

Many of the organisations whose precepts make up your Council Tax bill are currently formalising their budet plans for next year. Here's what we know so far...

The Cabinet of the Northallerton based County Council has decided to recommend an increase of 1.99% to its precept. The move, it says, will help it deals with the challenge of continuing to deliver 'key services' to the public while dealing with the 'unprecedented' cuts to the funding it receives.

This recommendation still has to be ratified by a meeting of all its members, known as Full Council, when it meets on February 18th. This is likely to be a formality however.

By voting to increase the precept by the 1.99% would give NYCC an income boost of around £4.8m. The Council says it has a budget requirement of £363m for the year and that even with a tax increase this year things will still be tight. It plans to take more than £1.6m from its reserves at the same time as implementing savings, or cuts, of around £22m next financial year.

Without a rise in Council Tax, the council would expect instead to receive a grant from the Government of no more than £2.5m, equivalent to a 1% tax increase. It it was to accept the grant it would leave a further £2.3m of savings required to be made across its budgets.

Police and Crime Commissioner Julia Mulligan, has announced only today that she has formally had her proposal to raise the police precept by 1.99% unanimously accepted by North Yorkshire’s Police and Crime Panel. 

The precept-hike comes after a public consultation where almost 1,500 residents from across North Yorkshire responded. 65% of them voted in favour of a precept increase with 33% voted in favour of a freeze. 

The Commissioner says a 1.99% increase would work out at 8p per week to the average Band D household, or £4.15 extra per year.  Across the whole county this increase would raise an additional £1.2 million for the Police force.

Commissioner Mulligan, said, “I welcome the Panel's backing for the 8p a week precept increase, and it was clear from the consultation that the public are happy to pay more for policing.

“Importantly, and for the first time, Commissioners give residents a voice in how that money is spent. For example, the £10m investment I approved for technology and mobile working will mean police officers will be spending more time out on the beat, something I know is important to communities up and down the county.”

“I would also like to take this opportunity to thank those members who are retiring from the Panel for their constructive and helpful dialogue.”

Until the last week, all the noises coming from Selby's Civic Centre were that the Council were anticipating an increase of just a shade under the magic 2% being applied to its Council Tax precept from April.

But leading members of the authority's ruling Conservative administration are now expected to abandon the planned increase when they meet to discuss the budget later today. Instead, the Cabinet are expected to take forward revised plans that would see the Council accept a £49,000 grant from Central Government in exchange for leaving their share of the Council Tax pie unchanged at £162 for a Band D property, as in 2014.

Taking money from the Government is no magic bullet however, the grant would effectively halve the amount of additional money coming into Council coffers when compared with the previously planned rise. This means the Council will have to look to additional 'efficiencies' and opportunities to boost income if it is to balance the books.

One such revenue raising scheme will be the Council's new Empty Homes Strategy, a method of penalising property owners for leaving homes in the district empty in the face of the current national homes shortage. The Council currently plans to charge a levy of upto 50% of the original Council Tax liability on a property that has been empty and substantially unfurnished for more than 2 years, regardless of how long the current owner has been liable.

Another will be its planned inflation-busting 2.2% hike to rents on Council Homes.

Whatever the outcome of today's policy setting meeting, the final decision on whether to hike or not to hike will be need to be rubber-stamped at a meeting of all Councillors on February 24th.

North Yorkshire's Fire Authority will not formally meet to consider it's budget proposals until February 11th. They will be considering a detailed report which contains an option of a rise of 1.99% or accepting an offer of a government grant equivalent to a 1% rise in exchange for not rising bills this year.

The current fire service precept works out at £63.33 for a Band D property. Should the Fire Authority vote to increase by the proposed sum this will become £64.59.

Information we have is that the 1.99% rise is the preferred option but we will not know for certain until the vote takes place.

There are 75 communities within the Boundary of the Selby District. Each community can have its own Parish or Town Council. Some smaller communities may have a 'Parish Meeting'. Precepts between communities vary considerably.

We do not currently have any information about which communities will see a rise in precepts and whether any will adopt a freeze.

This information will become available soon and will be made available in our interactive Council Tax Calculator.