On Tuesday 11th February, Tandridge District Council's Resources Committee recommended there would be no increase in the councils' share of the council tax for 2014/15. This decision will be put forward to Council on Thursday 20th February for agreement.

This means Band D council tax remains the same as last year at £193.62, which is £3.72 a week for a wide range of services including recycling and waste collection, planning, street sweeping, housing, housing benefits and children’s play areas.

Surrey County Council, which provides services including education, adult social care, children services and highways, together with the office of the Surrey Police and Crime Commissioner, have both agreed to increase their Band D level for 2014/2015. A Band D Council tax is split between the organisations as follows:

This gives an overall Band D Council Tax level of £1,601.13 for next year, which is a 1.74% increase compared to the current year. An average increase across the district including parish precepts is 1.94%. Most people on income support or guaranteed pension credit will continue to have the cost of council tax fully met by council tax support.

Other people will automatically have their council tax support recalculated to reflect their revised council tax bills. Chairman of the Resources Committee, Councillor Martin Fisher, said: “I am pleased we are recommending no increase in Council Tax for next year.

We recognise residents are experiencing difficult times and they expect the Council to keep costs as low as possible. We have fully reviewed our costs, reducing them where we can and making further efficiency savings, but above all ensuring we preserve services.

The amount of government grant we receive has reduced substantially, but we have reduced our budget and this has enabled us to recommend the freezing of Council Tax for next year.”