Bath and North East Somerset Council has voted to increase council tax by the maximum amount possible as it battles a “significant and unpredictable” bill for social care.

From April, council tax bills in the area will go up by 4.99 per cent, equivalent to £86.64 per year for a typical band D property. But council cabinet member for resources Mark Elliott (Lansdown, Liberal Democrats) insisted as he presented the budget plans to the council on February 25: “Many councils and residents of other authorities would be extremely envious of our position.

“We have healthy reserves, we are not at any significant risk of finding ourselves in financial difficulty. We are not, as other councils are, unable to balance the books or making swingeing cuts to services. We are having to apply to central government for permission to make exceptional council tax rises.”

“The 4.99 per cent increase is the maximum possible without special permission from the government or a local referendum. 2.99 percentage points of the rise will be for general use, while two percentage points of the rise will be ringfenced for spending on adult social care and appear on council tax bills as the Adult Social Care Precept.”

The precept was introduced in recent years to address the soaring social care costs councils are facing. Bath and North East Somerset Council’s budget increases its funding for social care by £6.5m.

Mr Elliott added that the market system for children’s services was “truly broken” and providers could charge hundreds of thousands of pounds for each care package for the area’s most vulnerable children.

The council is planning to build a new special school and an alternate provision school on the site of Culverhay to care for more children in the area, reducing spending on costly out-of-area provision. But Mr Elliott said the council was still waiting for the new Labour government to confirm the funding, which had been promised under the Conservatives.

The budget included cuts, savings, and new charges and income to make up a £14m budget gap driven by the “extreme” pressure, which Mr Elliott said was particularly in children’s services. But Robin Moss (Westfield, Labour), who leads the opposition Labour group on the council said the planned budget was “more of the same.”

Leader of the Independent group, Shaun Hughes (Midsomer Norton North), said the group “fully supports” the spending on social care but warned against proposals to delay £210k of investment into car parks until next year, warning that the council’s own reports identified impacts on safety.

But Mr Elliott said that the spending would add “unfunded risk” to the budget. The amendment was voted down, with the Liberal Democrat group, who have a majority on the council, all voting against.

The 2025/26 budget as put forward by the Liberal Democrat administration was passed unamended by 36 votes to eight. Only members of the Liberal Democrat group voted in favour of the project, with the Labour group and Conservative Tim Warren (Midsomer Norton, Redfield) voting against.