Tandridge District Council has frozen its Council Tax for the second consecutive year – despite a 29% cut in Government funding.

Band D council tax will remain the same as last year at £193.62 – £3.72 a week – for services including refuse collection, recycling, planning, street sweeping, housing, housing benefits and children’s play areas.

However, Surrey County Council, which provides services including education, adult social care, children services and highways, has pushed through a 2.99% council tax increase.

Surrey Police Authority has also implemented a 2.5% hike – meaning a Band D property will see an overall increase of 2.54% to £1,546.77

People on income support or guaranteed pension credit who have no non-dependants will continue to have the cost of council tax fully met by council tax benefit.

Other people on council tax benefit will automatically have their benefit recalculated to reflect their revised council tax bills.

“For a second year running there is no increase in council tax and services have been protected,” said chairman of Resources Committee, Councillor Martin Fisher.

“Through careful financial management we are one of the few councils to have maintained a high level of services for the benefit of our residents, with no increase.

“We have absorbed a 29% cut in Government Grant support in the last two years and lower interest income by continuing to make substantial reductions to our support services, including staffing.

“Our staff have also demonstrated their commitment, by coping with a recruitment freeze which has been in place since 2008 and adopting flexible working practices.”

Value for money

He added: “We continue to offer value for money by concentrating expenditure on providing and supporting front line services.

“We are particularly pleased to keep free shoppers parking to support local businesses. Our garden waste collection service continues to grow, with over 5,400 households subscribing to it.

“We plan major changes to our recycling and waste contract for the benefit of the environment through reducing the amount of waste that goes to landfill, while maintaining weekly collections and a back door waste collection service.

“There is no doubt the next few years will continue to be difficult, but we are confident we can maintain the services our residents’ value.”