Ratepayers face similar rise to last year

Lisburn City Council has struck rate increases of less than 3% over the last five years and when the draft figures, on which the figure is decided, were presented to the Corporate Services Committee recently it is believed the rise was around 2.7%.

However, the Chairman of the committee, Councillor Paul Givan, said he was pressing for further savings to be made in the hope of lowering the increase.

Mr Givan said he was hopeful further potential savings could be identified to bring that closer to 2.5%. This would be a similar increase to that set last year.

"The council have been working over the past number of months in preparation for the striking of the rates for the next financial year. Currently the indications are that we are on course to strike a rate similar to last year" he said.

"Work will continue over next few weeks to try to push the rate increase below the level struck last year. This will require a lot of effort but I believe there are other potential savings that could be identified to bring us to a figure of less than 2.5%."

Lisburn currently has one of the lowest rates in Northern Ireland and Mr Givan has said he will continue to work in the hope of maintaining that status.