RESIDENTS in Basingstoke and Deane could be facing a £5 council tax increase following proposed budget changes.

Cabinet members of Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council put forward the proposals during a meeting on Tuesday night, which will now be debated at full council.

Councillors will be recommended to approve the new budget, which would see the basic amount of council tax for 2017/18 for a band D property in the borough rise by 4.7 per cent, a £5 a year increase.

Cabinet member for finance, service delivery and improvement Cllr Robert Tate said it would set up the borough council for its future plans for long-term growth.

Cllr Tate said: “We are determined to invest in our communities, but to help fund some of these provisions we need to be making savings elsewhere.

“In the wider schemes of things, we are still one of the councils with the lowest council tax rate and we continue to invest.”

However, leader of the Liberal Democrats in Basingstoke, Cllr Gavin James, believes the proposed budget is an indication of poor spending by the borough council.

He said: “To invest £1 million for a retaining wall to build an office block, and a further £600,000 on a new hotel and see no return on either is a sign of poor spending.

“To put up council tax by double the rate of inflation is penalising the people in our borough.”

Leader of the borough council Cllr Clive Sanders argued that the budget reflects the borough’s growth and how it has made a saving of £10 million in previous years.

He said: “We are always investing in what the borough needs and we are also putting money in to areas where we don’t have the responsibility, such as transport and support services to help the people of Basingstoke and Deane.”

The budget will be debated at full council on February 23.