A COUNCILLOR said the government is forcing local authorities to raise council tax by taking away grants for basic services.

The government announced last month that councils can raise their council tax by 5.9 percent without triggering a referendum, an increase of one percent.

Herefordshire Council has proposed a rise of 4.9 percent to help meet the increasing costs of providing adult social care.

The cabinet approved this and the vote will now be left to full council on January 26.

Speaking at a cabinet meeting as an opposition councillor, Liberal Democrat Terry James said unfortunately the public's anger about tax council increases will be misdirected.

He said: "The anger should be directed at central government. They are taking away the money to provide the basic services in grants. It is almost like holding a child or elderly person hostage and saying if you don't increase it then they will suffer. It is a form of social blackmail by the government.

"It will cause an enormous difficulty for a lot of people. Their income is going up one percent and their council tax is going up 4.9 percent."

Government grants will stop in 2020 and the council said it needs the council tax increase to deliver a balanced budget.

Cabinet member for finance, housing and corporate services, Nigel Shaw, said: "I would like to propose a recommendation, however, instead of taking an increase in core council tax next year of 1.9 percent, that this is increased to 2.9 percent and in respect of adult social care - this is reduced to two percent.

"This provides the council essentially with the same amount of revenue income but allows more flexibility in terms of where the money is spent. It provides an uplift of the base. The adult social care precept is a one-off precept. It also means that next year, instead of restricting ourselves to a one percent adult social care precept we have the option of a two percent adult social care precept because of the rules of government in that area."

Chief finance officer Andrew Lovegrove said he assumed the extra one percent from core council tax would be used for the adults and wellbeing directorate.

It's Our County leader Anthony Powers suggested raising the council tax to the full 5.9 percent and ringfence the money for services which residents value.

But leader of the council, Tony Johnson, said they had thought about this but when they considered that the average wage of the county is £20,000, while the national average is £27,000, they decided it was hard to put the maximum increase on the general public.