North West Leicestershire District Council is inviting residents, tenants and businesses to comment on how it plans to spend and save money in the coming year.

The online surveys, which allow people to comment on the council's two budgets by Sunday 30 January, are available HERE.

Proposals for 2022 budgets include:

• Freezing the NWLDC portion of council tax for the thirteenth year running
• Investing £20.5 million over five years to reduce the carbon footprint of council homes
• Spending a further £11.6 million on projects to regenerate Coalville over the next five years
• Increasing rents to council tenants by up to 4.1% (average £3.46 per week) to pay for planned improvement work to homes
• Keeping garden waste collections free for one bin, but introducing a £45 charge for each additional bin.

NWLDC has two budgets which can be commented on:

• The Housing Revenue Account specifically for council housing. The income is solely from rents and service charges and the money is only spent on council housing.

• The General Fund covers everything else the council does, from collecting waste and considering planning applications, to managing parks and promoting tourism across the district. The income for this work comes from council tax and business rates, as well as other fees and charges like planning fees.

The surveys will be open until midnight on Sunday 30 January.

Comments will be fed back to the authority's Cabinet, which will meet to set the budget on Tuesday, February 1.

The budget will be decided at a Full Council meeting on Thursday, February 24.

Cllr Nick Rushton, Corporate Portfolio Holder at NWLDC, said: "Keeping our finances healthy while planning for the future is very important to us so we can continue to freeze our portion of council tax.

"This year's decision was especially important as we know many of our communities will once again face financial struggles, so we've balanced our need to spend and save.

"We're proud to continue to deliver high quality services to the people of North West Leicestershire so we are proposing to increase some of our income to help us to deliver more and remain financially healthy.

"Understanding what our communities think about our proposals is very important, so I would encourage people to take part in our online surveys to let us know their thoughts."