Hampshire Fire & Rescue freezes council tax again (From Andover Advertiser)

Hampshire Fire & Rescue freezes council tax again

5:38pm Thursday 28th February 2013 in Winchester

HAMPSHIRE Fire and Rescue Authority has frozen its council tax portion for a third successive year.

Despite further Government grant cuts, the authority was able to keep tax the same after making £2m savings last year.

For a Band D property the cost remains £61.38, or £1.18 per week, one of the lowest fire service rates in England.

But despite the freeze, the amount the authority receives will fall by 4.3 per cent to £67.5m due to Government changes to the council tax benefit system.

Authority chairman Royston Smith said: “With the continuing pressure on household budgets I am delighted that the authority has been able to set a budget that means no increase in our portion of the council tax for the third year running.

"Thanks to careful financial planning, we successfully made savings of £2 million last year, with a further savings of £4 million of saving planned over the next two years.

"We will continue to review how our services are delivered to make Hampshire safer."