COUNCIL chiefs say residents across the Dudley borough will continue to pay one of the lowest council tax rates in the country – despite a hike of 4.49 per cent.

Members of the council last night (Monday) gave their approval to a council tax increase from April which will see 2.99 per cent going into general services and a further 1.5 per cent going directly to adult social care services.

The rise will see Band B households paying no more than 82p more per week - while for Band D properties it will be an extra £1.05.

Council chiefs say the rise will enable the authority to invest in key council services, and despite the increase residents will continue to pay the lowest council tax rate in the West Midlands and one of the lowest in the country.

Councillor Steve Clark, Dudley’s cabinet member for finance, said: “Dudley is a low-taxing, low-spending council.

“Over the next three years we're proposing an additional £2.8m into the Place directorate including money to improve our streets and green spaces, to extend free parking to two hours across the borough and to secure the future of school crossing patrols.

“At the same time we want to provide for growing numbers of most vulnerable in our borough, so we propose a further £9.8m into the People directorate including money for the growing numbers of older people including those with dementia, for services to looked after children and the transfer of complex care for people with learning disabilities.

“In spite of funding and spending pressure we have identified sufficient savings to deliver a lawful budget for 2018-19.

“Those efficiencies also start to address the sustainability of our finances in the years that follow.”

He said the priority was to “protect frontline services” and he added: “We have identified savings of over £5.6m over the next three years - that's £2.8m from the directorate of People, £1.8m from the directorate of Place, £1m from the Chief Executive's directorate; and we will continue, as in previous years, to make savings as far as possible by giving up vacant posts and by redeployment.”

He said although the report sets out “a far more healthy strategy than we've had for a number of years” – he added: “We still face deficits in future years that will rapidly eat into our reserves.

“To become fully sustainable we need to identify further savings or increase resources by around a further £7m over and above the proposals we have set out.

“We are also continuing to rationalise our use of buildings and release land for regeneration, streamline the way we do business and to work towards maximising community resilience.

“We've also engaged a strategic procurement advisor to review our approach to procurement and we will be investing in additional capacity for procurement and commercial work. In the longer term we are looking to this to more than pay for itself and to contribute to the reserves funding gap.”

He said the authority is “not a council that is rich in terms of reserves to weather the financial storm” and he added: “We need to be financially sustainable in the face of funding reductions from central government.”

Labour group chiefs Councillor Pete Lowe (leader) and Councillor David Sparks (finance) gave their approval to the budget which was given the thumbs up in a vote of 61-1 with four abstentions – with Cllr Sparks saying: “We support this report. It’s tremendous that during the course of the last year we’ve been able to have a consensus.”

While Councillor Patrick Harley, Conservative leader of the authority, said: “There does seem to be a general consensus that this is a positive budget for the people of Dudley.”

A bid by UKIP to amend the budget – which included a proposal to increase the council tax by just 2.99 (1.49 per cent basic and 1.5 per cent for adult social care) and calling for the post of the chief executive to be scrapped – was thrown out.

Cllr Harley said the amendment, which also included a bid to cut members’ allowances and the salaries of strategic directors and chief officers by 20 per cent, should have been presented to group members “far earlier” than on the night of the full council meeting.

And he added: “It’s easy to propose something like this when you know you’re not going to be around to suffer the consequences.”