Leicestershire County Council looks set to put up its share of council tax bills by three per cent next year.

Councillor Lee Breckon, lead member for resources, says he knows the rise will hit people in the pocket, but the authority needs to make a staggering £100m worth of savings – with £46m of it still to find.

The impact of the pandemic, huge rise in inflation and costs of caring for vulnerable people have been blamed for the increase – as well as the fact the authority is among the worst funded councils in the country.

But Coun Breckon said the rise, which is in the authority's 2022-2026 budget proposal, will equate to just 4p a day for the average household.

He said: "I think we certainly know how hard this is for people and we understand the cost of living crisis.

"All we can say is the council tax they do pay pays for those essential services it helps us care for vulnerable adults and children.

"I think really just the key thing is, it equates to £1.20 a month, which is 4p a day.

"That's not making light of it because obviously what we don't want to do is increase the cost of living for hard pressed Leicestershire families but that is where we're at with that."

From the overall 3% rise, council is looking to put 2% into its core precept, which the part of the bill spread across various services, while remaining 1% will go towards adult social care.

While the council is confident it can balance the books next year, it is finding it very difficult to make further savings after that – having found only £54m so far of the £100m worth of savings it needs to make.

But Coun Breckon added they will do everything they can to avoid having to make cuts to services to make up the shortfall.

"The numbers we are looking at are stark and worrying," he said. "While we can balance our budget next year, after that it becomes increasingly challenging.

"The demand for social care for our vulnerable residents grows year after year and the cost of providing that care has increased.

"Special educational needs funding continues to be insufficient and represents one of the council's biggest financial risks.

"I think we have to maintain the services that the public rely on and that's always our priority. We have managed our finances carefully in the recent years and, with the position that we're in, we do not anticipate large service reductions.

"Service reductions will only be explored when every other avenue has been considered because part of our brief as a local authorities is we have statutory duties to deliver and that is what we're very proud of delivering.

"Every department has been looked at [for efficiency savings], we go through a process here which we do very thoroughly."

Coun Breckon insisted that it would not be 'all doom and gloom', however.

"For highways, we've announced another £11 million to invest in the current network, for maintenance and new schemes," he said.

"On top of this we need our fair funding campaign. We've rebooted it as the F20. The F20 Councils [the 20 lowest funded councils in the country] are in the process of lobbying the Government and are looking to involve their local MPs.

"If we had that funding that we're asking for as the lowest funded authorities, it would cover the deficits at the end of the four year term.

"It's a figure of over 40 billion and that is our shortfall. The system should be a much fairer system. And obviously, that is why we as an authority are so lowly funded because it isn't fair. It's out of date."

The council's cabinet is set to approve a two-month public consultation on its Medium Term Financial Strategy when it meets on Thursday December 14.

The proposals will also be debated by councillors through the scrutiny process before being voted on by the full council, on February 23, after the views of the public, businesses and councillors have been discussed.