RESIDENTS are expected to pay more council tax as a Hampshire borough deals with the affects of the pandemic.

Test Valley borough council has set its budget strategy for 2021/22, revealing a council tax increase of £2.50 to try and deal with the deficit created by Covid-19.

At a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, councillors addressed the loss of income, primarily from car parking, planning application and leisure centre fees, combined with increased costs.

The authority is expected to be £6.3m worse off in 2020/21, but as a result of grants and savings, the total deficit is £1.4m.

To deal with this, councillor’s agreed to dip into reserves to cover the deficit once final figures are revealed in May.

The government is assuming that council tax will rise by £5 next year and has already built that into its assessment of councils’ spending power.

Despite this, the authority has chosen to go with a ‘much more modest’ increase of £2.50.

Finance portfolio holder, Cllr Maureen Flood, said: “The past year has been incredibly challenging for everyone including the council, but we are fortunate that we have been able to continue providing our core services.

“It is crucial that we continue to protect those services but acknowledge that there will be difficult times ahead.”

In 2021/22, Test Valley residents will pay an average of £148.91 for the year.

The authority said recently that its council tax support scheme would remain unchanged.