Council tax to go up by 4pc in Stockport - but £15 'cost of living rebate' agreed for those in bands A-D

Stockport residents will see their council tax bills rise by 4pc from April - but thousands of households will get a ‘cost of living’ rebate to cushion the blow.

The hike - which includes Andy Burnham ’s mayoral precepts - was approved at the council’s annual budget setting meeting on Thursday night.

It means that an average Band D household will pay an extra £83.25 over the course of the 2022/23 financial year.

READ MORE: Why does council tax keep going up in Greater Manchester?

But for once the Labour administration found itself in agreement with the Lib Dem opposition, voting through their proposal to hand £15 to more than 100,000 households in bands A-D, as fuel, food and energy prices begin to soar.

Funded through reserves, this would effectively cover the increase in the ‘general’ element of council tax, which accounts for 1pc of the rise.

The move was not welcomed by the Conservative group, however, who said it was not fair to demand more money from residents while the council was sitting on £92m in reserves at the start of the financial year.

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Labour council leader Elise Wilson told the meeting it was a budget concerned with ‘fairness and the future’.

She said: “This is a budget for our times. A budget to balance the immense pressures of today with the