EAST Lancashire's biggest local authority has voted to increase its council tax by the maximum 4.99 per cent despite Conservative claims its Labour bosses were proposing 'fantasy economics'.

This rise for Blackburn with Darwen Borough will add £56 a year to the bill for a Band A terraced house and £84 a year to the cost for a Band D family home from April 1.

The new annual figure for the all-purpose authority's part of the overall council tax for 2023/24 will be £1,188.39 for a Band A property and £1,782,58 for a Band D one.

With the 'precepts' for police and fire services the Band A figure becomes £1,410.87 a year and for a Band D home £2,116 30.

Darwen Town Council and parish councils will add a small extra levy to properties in their areas.

The Conservative group voted against the increase.

Blackburn with Darwen Council resources boss Cllr Vicky McGurk told the Finance Council meeting on Thursday night: "We are proposing to increase council tax by 2.99 per cent. We do this reluctantly.

"We recognise the government assumes we will do this in their calculation of our core spending power for next year.

"Our need to do this is more about the funding we have not been given by the government over the last 13 years which means we have little choice but to increase council tax to keep this council financially sustainable.

"To protect our services for adults, we are also proposing to increase the adult social care precept by two per cent.

"Overall, this change in council tax will mean the majority of residents – those living in a Band A property – will pay just £1.09 extra a week for our services next year.

"Our latest forecast outturn position for the current year is an overspend of £5.7million. It is fair to say it has been a challenging year. As the impact of Covid-19 diminished, it was quickly replaced by a cost-of-living crisis. We have seen our utility costs more than double whilst some of our income budgets have not yet recovered to pre-pandemic levels.

"Our increase in core spending power will be 10.2 per cent which, on the face of it, is very welcome. The increase in core spending power assumes we will increase the council tax by the maximum possible and if we don’t do this, given the prevailing rate of inflation, it will represent a real terms cut of around five per cent."

Her Conservative group counterpart Cllr Neil Slater said: "Since I have been here in 2016, the budget we have voted for is never the figure at the end of the financial year.

"It's not a budget. It's a financial framework.

"All we do is sell out assets, spend some more money and then bang residents with a five per cent increase on the council tax.

"It's not a necessity. It's a choice.

"Once again it's always the big bad Tory government's fault. Never yours.

"We are here for a financial budget not for dreamland. This is fantasy economics."

Tory group leader Cllr John Slater said: "All I hear is austerity and Tory cuts.

"So you would expect that your core spending - the total amount the council has to spend on its decisions - would have gone down.

"I'll just take the last five years from 2018 to 2023/24. It's actually gone up for this council - these are the figures from the House of Commons Library - by 33 per cent "You can spiel all you want about government cuts. The reality is there aren't any. You've actually got more.

"You have made the choice that the poor people of this borough have to pay the maximum amount of council tax for less services."

Darwen East Liberal Democrat Cllr Paul Browne said: "The Labour group on this council every time they have a budget they go right to the limit so they know they're going to get the money in. They're not really interested in what's going on out there."