AN INFLATION-BUSTING council tax increase, pushing many more bills over £1,000, has been approved by county councillors.

Kent County Council’s 84 members voted for a 12.5 per cent hike as they debated the authority’s £1.25billion budget during a day-long meeting.

The increase will mean the county council bill for homes in Band D – the average – will go up to £852 from £758.

At the same time, county councillors have also voted to cut some 300 central administration jobs over the next three years as part of a £30million package of savings.

Opening a debate on the council tax, Conservative council leader Sir Sandy Bruce-Lockhart said the spending plans would protect and support key services.

He stressed; “We want to protect the council taxpayer as much as possible and we have the lowest increase among counties in the south east. We said we would protect frontline services but that has meant some severe cuts in administration.”

He said KCC had to deal with the consequences of the Government’s decision to shift money away from counties like Kent to authorities in the north and Midlands.

“The long-term consequences of this for Kent will be immense. Even before the Government’s redistribution, the north east was receiving 25 per cent more funding than Kent.”

However, Labour opposition leader Cllr Mike Eddy accused the Tory leadership of whingeing, saying central government grants to Kent had increased by £30million.

“Kent has had increase after increase under Labour, unlike when the Tories were in government. You have got so much money, you don’t know how to cope. We know how grateful Kent is to its staff when it cuts the equivalent of 300 full time jobs,” he said.

He questioned how well off Kent would be under a Tory government which was committed to a 20 per cent cut in taxes.

“If they were in control, how much would we have to play with then? A 20 per cent cut would mean 20 per cent less income for Kent.”

For the Liberal Democrats, leader Cllr Trudy Dean said she acknowledged the Government had invested much more in local services. But it had “lost the plot” in bringing in changes which meant Kent lost out.

“To ask us to increase spending on education by 6.6 per cent and social services by 8.9 per cent is commendable but not recognising the fact that Kent has areas of deprivation is inexcusable,” she said.

Householders learned last week they would be hit by another increase when Kent Police announced a budget which will mean its share of the council tax has gone up nearly 30 per cent.