COUNCIL taxpayers will see their bills rise by nearly four per cent this year, pushing average bills for Kent County Council’s share above the £1,000 mark for the first time.

KCC’s Conservative administration has confirmed an increase of 3.9 per cent for its share of the bill, meaning that average bills for householders in Band D homes - those valued at between £68,000 and £88,000 - will top £1,000, rising £37 from £964 last year to £1,001 in 2008.

For those in Band C homes - of which there are most in Kent - the increase would be about £34.

Overall bills will be higher once the other components, including the district council element and Kent Police tax, are added.

While the increase is lower than the amount that pensions and benefits will rise this year, it is above the Comsumer Prices Index (CPI) which is also used to measure inflation.

The administration said its £1.5billion budget will include a package of cost-cutting measures saving £27million, but warned bills might rise still further if the Government failed to refund to KCC some £10million it says it is owed to meet the costs of looking after child asylum seekers.

Conservative county council leader Paul Carter said the spending plans would not hit frontline services and efforts had been made to cushion the impact by cutting back on administration.

He blamed the Government for a funding shortfall that meant KCC had been given an extra £9million in grants but needed an extra £33million just to standstill.

Overall, KCC needed to increase spending on services by £61million.

"It is becoming harder every year to find savings to bridge the gap between what we need to deliver services and the grant we get from government. The balance has to come through the increase in council tax," he said.

While the council had considered a lower increase, that would have been a false economy, he said.

The council’s proposed budget, which will be debated at a special meeting in February, includes plans to spend £5million more on maintaining and improving the county’s roads.

Care services for the elderly will also be safeguarded with an investment of £7.8million to meet extra demand.

There will also be a push to generate more income from KCC's commercial activities, which has led to criticism from some in the private sector.

Opposition parties criticised the proposed increase and the threat to increase bills still further if the Government failed to refund asylum money.

Labour leader Cllr Mike Eddy said: "Issuing implied threats that council tax will rise if this Government does not pay up [the asylum money] within a limited timeframe is tantamount to saying that we do not want the claims settled and that we positively want council tax payers to foot the bill. This is perverse in the extreme and putting party politics before the true interests of Kent council tax payers."

Liberal Democrat spokesman Cllr Dan Daley said the increase would hit pensioners disproportionately hard. "The Government must recognise that the only solution is to have a tax system that is related to people’s ability to pay."