On Monday 9 February the Resources Committee recommended no increase in Tandridge District Council’s share of the council tax for 2015/2016. This is the fifth year there has been no increase. This decision will be put forward to Council on 19 February for agreement.

This means Band D council tax remains the same as last year at £193.62, which is £3.72 a week for a wide range of services including recycling and waste collection, planning, street sweeping, housing, housing benefits and children’s play areas.

Surrey County Council, which provides services including education, adult social care, children services and highways, together with the office of the Surrey Police and Crime Commissioner, have both agreed to increase their Band D level for 2015/2016.

A Band D Council tax is split between the organisations as follows:

This gives an overall Band D Council Tax level of £1,629.19 for next year, which is a 1.75% increase compared to the current year. An average increase across the district including parish precepts is 1.74%.

Most people on income support, guaranteed pension credit, or very low incomes will continue to have the cost of council tax fully met by council tax support. Other people will automatically have their council tax support recalculated to reflect their revised council tax bills.

Chairman of the Resources Committee, Councillor Martin Fisher, said: “I am pleased that once again we are recommending no increase in council tax for next year. This will be the fifth year we have frozen council tax. We recognise residents expect the Council to keep costs as low as possible, we have fully reviewed our costs, reducing them where we can and making further efficiency savings, but above all ensuring we preserve services.“

The amount of government grant we receive has yet again reduced substantially, but we have reduced our budget and this has enabled us to recommend the freezing of council tax for next year. We are one of the few councils in the south east which has not cut financial support to residents unable to pay some or all of their council tax.”