Cornwall Council has set a budget which will cost average householders more than £1 extra a week in council tax – and includes extra money to be spent on social care.

The council’s cabinet says the budget will protect front-line services from the impact of further cuts in Government funding, provide an additional £13m for supporting vulnerable adults and invest around £770m in providing hundreds of new affordable homes for local people, improving transport links, and creating jobs by growing the local economy.

The budget is based on a council tax increase of 1.97%, a weekly increase of 51p a week for a Band D property, and a social care precept levy of 2% (52p a week).

Council Leader John Pollard said: ’This is a positive plan which focuses on opportunity, long term investment and supports our aims of improving outcomes for people, places and prosperity across Cornwall.

’During an unprecedented period of austerity this Council administration has delivered over £166m of savings.’

The aim of the budget and business plan is to deliver the priorities identified in the Council’s Strategy after a public survey to meet the needs of the most vulnerable, protect essential services such as public transport and road maintenance, and invest in new homes and infrastructure, at the same time as delivering the £33m savings forced on the authority.

Cornwall Council spends 27% of its total budget on adult social care services. At yesterday’s budget meeting, a decision to approve a social care precept levy of 2% will generate an additional £5.2m for adult social care in 2017/2018.

With further increases expected in the social care precept in 2018/2019 and 2019/2020, this means the Council will be spending £146m on adult social care by 2019/2020 – a 16% increase on the current budget.

The budget also reflects the changes arising from the introduction of the rural 100% business rate retention pilot. This will see the council retaining 100% of local business rates from next year, equivalent to around £79m in 2017/2018.

As a result of this change the council will no longer receive a number of specific grants from the Government including Revenue Support Grant, Rural Services Delivery Grant or Highways Maintenance capital grants. 

The budget also includes the decision to freeze car parking fees for the coming twelve months from April.

Adding to the Cornwall Council tax rise, town and parish council precepts for 2017/2018 will cost an average Band D property £110.54; an 8.78% increase on the previous year. The total police precept for Cornwall of £32.745m results in a Band D charge of £176.28; a 1.99% increase which is below the 2% threshold for a referendum set by the Government.