Kent County Council has confirmed plans for an above-inflation increase of just under 4% in the council tax this year - and has warned the financial outlook for the authority is bleak.

The council says it will use new powers to increase the council tax by an additional 2% to provide more money for the spiralling demand for adult social care.

It had already proposed a general increase of just under 2%.

Conservative council leader Paul Carter said he regretted the above-inflation rise the council tax but there was no alternative if the council was to maintain frontline services given the strains on an already stretched budget.

“Year on year it is getting harder and harder to deal with cuts in funding and increasing demands for services from a rising population, particularly the elderly, and the next few years are not looking any better,” he said.

He added: “It is regrettable that we have proposed to put council tax up but we have no choice. It will, however, be essential if we are to maintain frontline services.”

As part of the draft budget plans, there will be 150 job losses on top of more than 2,000 that have been lost over the last five years.

The spending plans mean that average household bills for homes in Band D will rise to £1,133.55 from £1,089.99 for KCC’s share of the bill.

Those in Band C - of which there are most in Kent - will see an increase to £1,007.60.

KCC - like other authorities - is facing pressures in three main areas.

The most significant of these is the need to spend an extra £31 million just to meet the rising demand and increased costs for adult social care.

A further £12 million is needed to meet the additional demand for services such as waste disposal and special education needs transport.

And the council says government plans to introduce a national living wage means an extra £13m on wages.

Overall, some £80m is to be stripped out of the budget in the face of government cuts.

And the outlook is grim next year, with KCC saying it faces a further cut of £43m in grants.

Both Labour and the Liberal Democrat groups are likely to support the increase but have expressed concerns over how the council will show that the extra money for social care is spent.

Labour group leader Cllr Gordon Cowan said councils were paying the price for the government's failure to tackle the national budget deficit.

He said: "Needless to say, it will be those on middle and lowers incomes that will pay the price for this failure. It is their interests that we will have uppermost in our minds when viewing these proposals. Those on the highest incomes will continue to prosper as they are not so dependent on local services."