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Council Tax

That will indeed be the case. We propose to designate Leicestershire, Warwickshire and Cheshire police authorities for next year and allow them a maximum council tax increase of 3 per cent. When we formally announce the confirmation of that, there will be an opportunity for them to make representations, which we will take into account. I wish to signal clearly that we intend to follow through the decision that I announced on 26 June in respect of my right hon. Friend's police authority. We are protecting council tax payers in those three counties, and we will protect others by setting a lower threshold for capping in future years for Bedfordshire, Norfolk and Surrey police authorities and Portsmouth city council. Finally, we will protect council tax payers in Lincolnshire by going ahead with setting a maximum budget requirement for the police authority, although at a higher level than I proposed on 27 March. It will be equivalent to a 26 per cent. increase in council tax, rather than the 79 per cent. increase that it planned. We are satisfied that all eight authorities can live with the action that we have taken and that none of the seven police authorities will need to reduce their number of police officers as a result.