THURROCK Council leaders say they will not increase council tax by 10%. At tonight's (Wednesday, 10 January) cabinet meeting, Conservative councillor Ben Maney and council Leader Andrew Jefferies backed the decision, unveiled in a report from finance portfolio holder Cllr Graham Snell.

Cllr Snell said residents would be spared the worse-case scenario for council tax hikes this year.

He said: "I can confirm that we are not considering a 10 per cent rise in council tax this year. The budget that will be presented to council in February will reflect that position."

Cllr Ben Maney, councillor responsible for regeneration and highways, hinted an inevitable council tax hike may not be far behind 10 per cent.

He said: "I do welcome the decision not to proceed to a 10 per cent council tax increase but I think we need to make it very clear and place it on record the fact that that is in no way us ignoring the fact that Thurrock has a very difficult job to do and one of the fundamental challenges is to address that deficiency in our base budget.

"That's the root of so many of Thurrock's problems. The investment strategy was simply an attempt to get around the fact we don't raise enough money via council tax when you compare us to alike local authorities."

Cllr Maney added: "It wasn't caused by the investment strategy. It was years of not making sensible decisions about council tax which has lead us to that position and those who ignore that are doing a disservice to the council and residents.

"Whatever figure we arrive at the message we want to send to observers is we are absolutely conscious of the fact that Thurrock's survival is predicated on the fact that we address that deficiency in our budget and there are still going to be difficult decisions about that."

Cllr Jefferies echoed Cllr Maney and went on to say: "We still have a long way to go, we've still got difficult decisions to be taken. No one should be under the illusion we are through the tough times, we're not."