ALTON Town Council has approved a budget for 2017/18 which will result in a five per cent increase in precept to £567,644 (excluding Government council tax support grant).

In real terms, this will take the town council’s proportion of the council tax Band D equivalent to £82.46, representing an annual increase of £3.92 per household.

In March 2013, the national system of council tax benefit ended and responsibility for council tax support for 2013/14 was transferred from the national benefit scheme to local council tax support schemes, where each billing authority has discretion over its own scheme for working-age claimants.

Having reset the tax base figure, in East Hampshire a council tax parish support grant was introduced to offset the impact of this change in responsibility, to enable parishes to adjust their budgets to take into account those households who are exempt from paying council tax but whose council tax bill would have previously been funded via council tax benefit.

In Alton, while the tax base (those paying council tax) currently stands at 6,884 the number of households is actually in excess of 10,700 which, without the council tax support stop-gap could have left Alton Town Council with a big hole in the budget.

Only expected to last for three years, and with no confirmation at the time that council tax support would be forthcoming this year, with no cap imposed by central government on town and parish council precepts, Alton councillors felt it would be prudent to increase the budget by five per cent to make sure the council was in a position to negate the impact of this change of responsibility on the public purse.

Should the council tax support become available this year, at £34,573 it will bring the actual precept figure for 2017/18 up to £602,217.