Cabinet member for Finance, councillor Mike Cox said the scheme will only generate a fairly small amount, compared to the council’s current financial position.
“It is a small amount,” he said “but we have to pull every lever we’ve got and this is just one of them. But I do appreciate it will affect quite a few people quite a lot”.
Cox added: “I understand their pain. It is a significant increase in terms of the percentage, but it’s a relatively small amount of money in terms of the value of the property they’re sitting on.”
He admitted that other council services could face cuts ahead of the budget being set next month.
“There’s plenty of plans but none of them have been decided yet. We are looking at every nook and cranny of the council to see what we can throw at the problem we’ve got,” he said.