Horsham District Council plans to increase its portion of the council tax bill by 2.94 per cent.
If approved by the full council in February, it will take the authority’s portion of a Band D bill from £174.95 to £180.10 from April.
On top of that will be increased bills from West Sussex County Council and Sussex Police.
The recommendation was made during a meeting of the cabinet on Wednesday (January 21).
The special charge for those living in unparished areas will be frozen due to the introduction of a precept of £15.26, which will be used to set up the new Horsham Town Council.
Looking at the budget, the council expects to finish 2025/26 with a £286,000 surplus, with that figure expected to reach £1.6m by the end of 2026/27.
The net budget requirement needed for the coming financial year is £21.2m – an increase of £5m. This is largely due to inflation, salary increases, service demand pressures and the £2m it will cost to start food waste collections.
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Even though the government has said that this service has to be introduced, it has not done enough to help already cash-strapped authorities to cover the full cost.
On top of that, under the government’s Fairer Funding Review, Horsham was landed with a 4.3 per cent reduction in core funding – about £1m.
Councillor Mark Baynham, cabinet member for finance and resources, said the council was one of the 50-60 authorities deemed "not as worthy of funding as some others".
Only six councils were given a bigger funding reduction in percentage terms.
The budget is set to be approved at a meeting of the full council on Monday, February 23 from 6pm. Members of the public are welcome to attend.
