Barnet residents have one week left to tell the council if they would be willing to take a larger increase in their council tax.

The local government finance settlement announced in December permits councils to increase council tax by three per cent as a precept to fund adult social care in the tax year 2017-18.

Barnet Council currently plans to increase council tax by two per cent and has asked residents if they would be willing to see this go up to three percent in a survey open until next Thursday (January 19).

A two per cent increase would generate an additional £3 million to help relieve pressures on adult social care budgets, which includes care for the elderly.

By increasing council tax by three per cent, the council would raise £4.6 million for adult social care, adding £33.63 to council tax bills for a Band D property in 2017-18 (£2.80 more per month).

The council faces a budget gap of £61.5m from 2017-20 due to continued reductions in government funding and increasing pressure on services as a result of the borough’s growing population.

Leader of the council Cllr Richard Cornelius, said: “Local government is facing some difficult challenges as our spending power is halved over the decade while the pressures on our social care services continue to grow.

“We have risen to this challenge and successfully saved £112 million so far without an increase in council tax bills for the last six years.

“We have made some difficult choices and with a £61.5 million budget gap left to fill until 2020 we will need to continue to make tough decisions to make sure that we focus our resources where they are needed most.

“The settlement has given us some additional flexibility with council tax and I would like to hear residents’ views on this as well as our other proposals to close next year’s budget gap of £22.2m.”

From 2010-14 and in 2015-16, Barnet Council froze council tax bills and cut them by one per cent in the interim 2014-15.

This year (2016-17), the council added 1.7 per cent to overall bills to fund adult social care, but reduced the amount given to the Greater London assembly so total bills did not change.

The results of a residents’ perception survey last spring showed 74 per cent of residents are satisfied with Barnet Council, above the outer London average of 70 per cent.

Questions about the potential council tax increase can be found in an online questionnaire on the council’s 2017/18 budget here.