Borders households hit with 5% council tax rise

Households in the Borders will see their council tax rise by nearly five per cent in a move that councillors say protects funding for roads, schools and care homes.

The budget approved today by the Conservative/Independent administration that runs Scottish Borders Council and opposition councillors means an average Band D property will pay an extra £57 per year.

Councillor Robin Tatler, Executive Member for Finance, said: “The change to the school funding position has meant that to be able to deliver replacements for Galashiels and Hawick in the timescales originally envisaged we have had to increase the council tax rise to 4.84%.

“In effect this is just an extra 42p per week for those in Band D properties over and above the indicative three per cent increase that was included in last year’s budget plan.

“Importantly this will enable us to raise the capital funding required to deliver an extra £2.2m for road repairs, the secondary school replacement programme and these two new care homes. That is a huge amount of investment for a relatively small weekly cost to our residents.

“Almost three quarters of residents are in properties in council tax bands A-D, and of those in Band A almost two thirds are eligible for discounts or reliefs, so the impact on those with lower incomes is minimised. Over 43 per cent of all households are eligible for some form of council tax relief or discount.”