PEOPLE in Kent can expect smaller council tax increases next year after the Government announced plans for a £1billion fund to help councils peg back bills.

Chancellor Gordon Brown said the money ought to be enough to knock five per cent off average bills but opposition parties said it was papering over the cracks and it was still not enough.

Kent is to get more than £888million in grants from the Government to spend on services in 2005-2006, representing a 4.9 per cent increase over last year. The overall budget for KCC will be close to £1.3billion.

In cash terms, the increase represents more than £41million more for education, social services and other county council services.

Local government minister Nick Raynsford said there was “no excuse for authorities to set excessive increases in council tax.”

However, Cllr Nick Chard (Con), KCC’s finance spokesman, said Kent had additional pressures that the Government had not properly accounted for.

“We are determined to keep council tax bills as low as possible but inflation in the public sector is much higher than the 2.5 per cent rate and it may well prove to be the case that we do not get all the money we need,” he said.

Particular issues were whether the Government had given councils enough to take on new social services responsbilities for supporting vulnerable people, he said.

Kent’s spending allocations include £759million for education; £308million for social services; £51million for highways; £96million for environment and £82million for capital projects.