COUNCIL taxpayers face another inflation-busting increase in their council tax this year after Kent County Council confirmed bills will rise by nearly four per cent.

County councillors voted through the increase at the authority’s annual budget meeting.

The council’s £1.5billion budget will mean average household bills for those in Band D homes will go up by £37 and will top £1,000 for the first time.

The budget debate was dominated by a row over a claim by the council’s Conservative administration that the Government’s failure to pay it £10million for looking after child asylum seekers had stopped it paring back the increase.

The Home Office rejected KCC’s claim that it was refusing to pay the grant money but was waiting to validate the bid for the outstanding amount.

County council leader Cllr Paul Carter (Con) said: "The government’s refusal to meet these costs in full has left the council with no choice but to keep the increase at 3.9 per cent."

He argued that it was "totally unacceptable" for Kent residents to pick up the tab for what was a national problem. KCC intends to meet some of the outstanding sum with about £5million that it expects this year’s budget to be underspent by.

KCC sought to substantiate its claim for the grant money by commissioning an independent report from consultants Price Waterhouse.

Cllr Carter denied it had been produced too late to give ministers the opportunity to examine it before the budget meeting.

Opposition Labour leader Cllr Mike Eddy accused the Conservatives of hiding behind vulnerable children as an excuse for the increase. "The Government is already in negotiations with KCC about asylum costs but for the council to demand that ministers should hand over taxpayers’ money without a second thought is just plain stupid."

For the Liberal Democrats, Cllr Trudy Dean said the Conservative administration had been "insensitive" in giving such a high profile to the issue of asylum costs in the context of their overall impact on the budget.

"The asylum card has been played time after time and it does the council no credit and it is just plain untrue," she added.

A Home Office spokseman said: "It is not true that we have refused KCC the money. The claims are still under consideration and no decisions have been made."