By Claire Warrender

COUNCIL TAX will be frozen in Fife next year if a budget proposed by council leaders is given the go-ahead next week.

However, taxpayers will still be hit with higher bills than in 2007/08 because of an increase in water charges—which the local authority has no control over.

In addition, council house tenants will see their rents rise by 2.8%, the equivalent of inflation plus 1%.

Announcing their budget proposals for the next three years yesterday, the SNP/Lib Dem administration said they hope they will never have to raise council tax again.

The intention is to freeze it for the next two to three years before the SNP-led Scottish Government introduces a local income tax to fund local services.

Administration leader Peter Grant and depute leader Elizabeth Riches will put forward a total budget of £981m at a special council meeting on Thursday—£41m more than the council had to spend in 2007/08.

If approved by councillors, it will mean extra police on the streets, more money for social work, education and housing and improvements to the area’s roads.

Councillors Grant and Riches said discussions with opposition parties indicate they are in broad agreement with the plans but predicted some debate about the finer points at Thursday’s budget-setting meeting.

The bulk of the increased spending will go into social work, which will receive an extra £18m, £4m of which will be used to help keep children safe and support adults with disabilities and the elderly to live independently and safely in their own homes.

However, council chiefs have made it clear the additional money is needed just to maintain current services because of an increase in demand and will not mean changes to the new and controversial charging policy for home care, despite a high-profile campaign to persuade the council to reverse its decision.

“We are very determined to help people to stay in their own homes for as long as possible. It is only 5% of people over 65 who are actually in old folks’ homes,” said Mrs Riches.

The biggest spending service—education—is to gain an additional £9.6m, with more money for schools to buy resources, reduce class sizes and create better IT support.

An £8m rise in the police budget to help improve community safety could, in real terms, mean an extra police officer for every council ward in the region, and an increase of between 30 and 40 officers across the region over the next three years.

Additionally, around £3m will go towards improving the roads infrastructure, which is officially the worst in Scotland for defects and potholes, and £10m will be ploughed into supporting the environment and waste management.

The administration is also planning a £15m investment to bring its housing stock up to new national standards and is looking eventually to build some council houses.

With 1600 households presenting as homeless each year in Fife, £680,000 of the housing budget will be spent on tackling homelessness and cutting the use of bed and breakfast accommodation.

The council has already committed £50m for sport and leisure—which will mean a replacement Fife Institute on the same site and a new swimming pool in Kirkcaldy, as well as the refurbishment of Carnegie Leisure Centre in Dunfermline—money which is also contained in the 2008/09 budget.

Council leader Peter Grant said the administration has identified almost £13m of efficiency savings which will be redirected to priority areas.

It includes £2.5m of savings by reducing management in social work and £2.6m saved by cutting back on management in schools.

The money will be put back into front-line services in both areas.

“This additional money will bring real benefits to the people of Fife,” he said.

“We are also able, for the first time in the council’s history, to deliver a budget for growth without increasing council tax.”

Mr Grant said that had an additional £4.7m not been available from the Scottish Government this year, council tax would either have risen by 3.16% or the administration would have been forced to “trim” its budget.