People will see almost a £50 rise to their bills, as council tax is set to be hiked by 4%.

Medway Council is drawing up their 2016/17 budget and the leader maintains that after a 30% cut in central government funding, they have no choice but to push up taxes, if people want to keep frontline services running.

If approved before full council in February, charges will be put up a basic 1.994%. A further 2% will then be put on and ring-fenced to help provide vital social services and care for an ageing population, a option the Chancellor gave council’s in his autumn statement.

It means for the 270,000 people living in the Towns, it will equate to bill of £1,234.89 per year for an average Band D home - a rise of £47 on last year’s charge.

Cllr Alan Jarrett, leader of Medway Council, said: “Once again it has been an incredibly tough task this year to balance the books. Year on year we receive less money from central government, which is quite frankly backing local authorities into a corner and will inevitably lead to cuts in various areas over the coming years, something we have always strived to avoid.

“In Medway we pride ourselves on protecting frontline services, which we have managed to do again in these draft budget proposals, but in the future, continued cuts to our funding will be damaging to the level of service we are able offer local people.

“The 1.994% rise in council tax and the additional social care precept is unavoidable if we want to maintain the important services that residents rely on and deserve.”

Changes to the Revenue Support Grant (RSG) mean the council will lose almost £12million from central government compared to 2015/16 – a 30% drop.

This is in addition reductions of 12% and 8% in 2011/12 and 2012/13 respectively - equating to a further £20m lost. Plus more cuts to the RSG since 2013 adding up to a 35million funding deficit.

The draft budget is at £316 million, while the new revenue support grant will only provide £28 million towards that - working out at about £103 per resident per year.

Highways, waste collection, libraries and leisure are priorities for the council amid the challenge of balancing the books.

Things that will not change:

• The council will keep weekly bin and recycling collections
• Freeze in car parking fees (until 2017)
• On going support of libraries and new community hubs
• The income from business rates, and current arrangements - including the doubling of Small Business Rate Relief continuing for a further year

Things that will change:

• Work is ongoing to move more into the digital age and cut down on costs by moving many services online.
• In social care there will be a stronger focus on people being supported to maintain their independence and receive care within their own homes.
• On-going major regeneration in the area will continue to boost the local economy, including and George Osborne’s recent announcement of Enterprise Zone status for Rochester Airport as part of The North Kent Innovation Zone, will attract more businesses to the area.

Details of budget proposals will be subject to change up until final decisions are made at the full council meeting on February 25, 2016.

The implications of the provisional local government finance settlement are available online at democracy.medway.gov.uk/mgconvert2pdf.aspx?id=29326