Council taxpayers will be paying slightly less than expected for their share of the Kent County Council part of the bill this year.

KCC has put forward plans to increase the council tax by 2.44 per cent, down on the 2.85 per cent the ruling Conservative administration had initially proposed.

It means average bills for homes in Band D will be £1,026 rather than £1,030.

The plan was agreed by KCC’s Conservative cabinet today but will have to be ratified at KCC’s budget meeting on Febuary 19.

Cllr Nick Chard (Con), KCC’s cabinet member for finance, denied the move to lower the increase was an election ploy. He said the council had managed to save an additional £3million after taking advantage of lower interest rate deals on some of its short-term loans.

"This has been done with the economic situation in mind and the fact that more and more people are finding it hard to meet their bills. Yes, we will be setting a low council tax but that is right in the current climate."

The opposition Labour group accused the council of setting an artificially low increase.

Cllr Derek Smyth, shadow cabinet finance spokesman, said: "In each election year this century, the Tories have had artificially low rates of council tax increase, only to be followed by major hikes in the following years."

Final bills will be higher once the the local district councils, Kent Police, Kent Fire and any parish council tax decide how much they need to pay for services.