COUNCIL tax payers in Surrey face increases in their bills of 11.4 per cent next year after the county council agreed its new budget on Tuesday.

In a budget which council leader Nick Skellett described as "designed to address the failure of others", the authority asks for extra cash from householders to help support services in the county.

The 11.4 per cent rise means that the tax for a Band D householder will increase from £648 to £721.98 a year, which works out at £1.42 a week.

Mr Skellett said the root of the increases was "the failure of government to adequately fund the very real needs of vulnerable people in our society."

He said that if the county funded social services to the level recommended by the government, it would be looking at a cut of nearly £22 million from the proposed social services budget.

"We are not prepared to do this," he told councillors during the authority's budget debate.

"We are not prepared to condone this wilful neglect of the old, the disabled or those with mental health problems and expose them to risk or danger."

The government's Standard Spending Assessment figure for education in the county meant that schools would struggle to meet the planned 4 per cent pay rise for teachers, plus their increased pension contributions.

The extra £24 million in next year's education budget would, however, allow a funding increase of 5.8 per cent which would be targeted at meeting the increased demand from pupils with special needs.

An extra £0.5 million will also be invested in an IT system for the council's reorganised children's service.

Inequalities in the government's grants distribution system also had an unfair impact on Surrey residents, he said.

"SSA for each child in Camden is £586. For each child in Surrey it is £94," he said. "Whatever the problems in Camden I do not believe that it is credible that the difference in the need to spend can be as great.

"Until the system is made fairer we will always have funding problems with social services."

The social services budget was constantly overspent, he said, a problem which would be tackled with an extra £15.8 million, or 5 per cent of the council tax increase.

"This increased funding will allow us to meet the demographic pressures that we face and to do more to enable people to leave hospital, and stay living in their own homes," he said.

Further spending was also promised on the environment and on maintaining levels of staffing in the fire service.

The budget also allocates £5.5 million to local capital projects, to be spent on schools, roads, social services and community facilities.

"We are not alone in asking our taxpayers for more," Mr Skellett said.

"After this increase our tax will still be among the lowest in the country, which is a considerable achievement for an authority which receives lower government funding per person than any other county yet operates in the most expensive area of the country outside central London."