THE overall council tax for the borough of Woking will increase by 4.4% for the coming financial year.

Householders in the lowest Band A will pay £61.54 a year more and those in the highest Band H £184.62 from April.

Mid-scale Band D households will contribute £92.31 extra to the tax, which pays for county and borough council services and Surrey Police.

All the precepts for Woking in 2022-2023 are now confirmed following the borough council setting its share at the recent Full Council meeting, when its budget for the year was passed.

The borough’s portion of the tax will rise by 2%, to bring in a total of £10,606,601 as a contribution to the council’s spending. This equates to £255.46 for Band D homes, up by £5 on the current year.

Surrey County Council’s precept is increasing by 4.99% across all bands, to collect a total of £67,526,086 from Woking council tax payers.

The county charge for Band D is £1,626.39, spilt into £1,440.91 for basic services and £185.48 for adult care.

Surrey Police and Crime Commissioner Lisa Townsend is levying the maximum allowable increase of £10, a 3.5% rise, which results in £295.57 for Band D. Woking householders will contribute a total of £12,271,770.83 for policing in the coming year.

The Woking borough council tax was set as part of the authority’s 2022-23 budget, which was supported only by the ruling Conservatives. Opposition councillors – Liberal Democrats, Labour and Independents – chose to abstain on the vote.

Several qualms on the budget were expressed by Lib Dem leader Ann-Marie Barker. She questioned the council’s ability to pay interest on loans that total £55.5m and whether it was wise to give a £843,000 grant to ThamesWey Energy – an arm’s-length company that has yet to make a profit.

Finance portfolio holder Simon Ashall said the interest rates would be covered by income the council receives in interest, rents and charges. ThamesWey needed the grant to meet the increased cost of gas for its combined heat and power generators.

The budget will fund nearly £50million of services in the borough, including investment in housing, leisure and environmental infrastructure and the costs of borrowing for the Victoria Square redevelopment and the Sheerwater regeneration.

Council leader Ayesha Azad said after the meeting: “This is a budget for rebuilding after the pandemic. It sets out a positive path for Woking’s future, how the council delivers services while building up its reserves and funding its ambitious investment programme.

“The past two years have been challenging but this council has used its reserves built up over many years to protect services. That was the right thing to do. Now we need to ensure that we would be able to do so again in the future.

“There is nothing about this budget that gives good reason not to support it. The only reason not to do so is purely political posturing, the ability to tell those who support it that you didn’t oppose it and those who oppose it that you didn’t support it.”

WOKING BOROUGH COUNCIL TAX FOR 2022-23

Band     Surrey County        Police and Crime    Borough                  Total              Council Total          Commissioner        Precept

A            £1,084.26                 £197.05                    £170.31                    £1,451.61

B            £1,264.97                 £229.89                    £198.69                    £1,693.55

C            £1,445.68                 £262.73                    £227.08                    £1,935.48

D            £1,626.39                 £295.57                    £255.46                    £2,177.42

E            £1,987.81                 £361.25                    £312.23                    £2,661.29

F            £2,349.23                 £426.93                    £369.00                    £3,145.16

G           £2,710.65                 £492.62                    £425.77                    £3,629.03

H            £3,252.78                 £591.14                    £510.92                    £4,354.84