council tax rise reasonable welsh councils should set their taxes at reasonable levels after being given an average funding increase of 6 says the assembly government finance minister sue essex said it was a good deal for local government the 32bn settlement includes the full 74m from the uk treasury announced by chancellor gordon brown but opposition parties said rebanding of council taxes would mean steep rises in addition 134m will come from the business support grant a scheme which enables local authorities to keep part of business rates she said where spending rises were kept to around 5 she was confident that councils will be able to set council taxes at reasonable levels the welsh local government association wlga had said on the eve of the announcement said that significant cuts to services may still be unavoidable after the announcement wlga finance spokesman bob wellington of torfaen said it was vital that rises were minimsed a limited amount of money has come available but this is not the answer to our problems said mr wellington it is vital that we start now to plan for future years and accept that resources will continue to reduce while pressures on services increase on monday a delegation of north wales councils visited ms essex to lobby for increased funds ms essex said i have listened to the views of local government and council tax payers and recognise the funding pressures and the concerns they have about council tax rises i have met a large number of local authorities in recent weeks and i am aware of the pressures on them to provide local services and keep down the level of council tax particularly for those people to are moving up a band due to the revaluation of domestic properties she said council taxes could be kept at reasonable levels even for those people who have moved up a band the settlement includes a rise in the grant to help councils with the most deprived communities and a 164 rise in capital expenditure support ms essex said this is a good deal for local government which will allow the wellmanaged councils of wales to develop their services and charge reasonable levels of council tax it is now a matter for council leaders to manage their budgets at a local level plaid cymru s local government spokesman dai lloyd called the announcement hugely disappointing he said wales and its local authorities have been short changed yet again this is not whinging as the labour assembly government so often claims it is anger this will mean either a massive hike in council tax massive cuts in services provided by councils or both mike german leader of the liberal democrats in the assembly claimed that one in three homes were still likely to face council tax rises due to rebanding mr german said i know from my discussions with welsh liberal democrat council leaders that they are doing their utmost to keep