Residents in rural and northern parts of Essex face higher rent, council tax and bin collection costs as Uttlesford faces "very severe" cuts to its funding from the Government.
Uttlesford District Council is proposing the increases with the council boss insisting the authority is doing its "best to achieve fiscal responsibility while providing services".
The council is proposing a 2.7 per cent increase in council housing revenue rents. The average increase in weekly rents would be £3.52, leading to an average weekly rent payable by council tenants of £129.61.
The council is also planning a council tax increase of 2.99 per cent for 2025/26.
The Band D equivalent would be £182.02, which would be an increase of £5.28.
The authority is also planning to impose a council tax premium of 100 per cent to properties that have been empty and furnished for one year or more, with effect from April 1, 2025.
The council is also planning on increasing the garden waste collection for the wheeled bin from £50 to around £65 for the fortnightly collections.
The council’s scrutiny committee will discuss the budget at a meeting on February 4.
All councils are being scrapped and replaced with larger authorities covering more areas, towns and cities, and a senior Uttlesford councillor insists that money is being taken away from services and saving projects.
Neil Hargreaves, deputy leader of the council and councillor for finance and the economy, said: "For the local Government reform, we’ve had to set aside around £2.5million for the costs.
"Government is not paying for this and is imposing it on us, and we’ve had to take money which would have been used for services and for savings projects for this. We are being forced to pay for this.
"The increases proposed are modest and, I think, quite reasonable. Part of the overall is we’ve got to get a much money as we can because of the local government reform which is being imposed on us and the Government funding cuts which are very severe.
"It’s about £5.5million over five years we are losing and we’ve not been given any long term plan or financial certainly.
"Officers have described it as the most chaotic they’ve seen. We are seeing starvation of councils and more things being imposed. We will be able to cope but it’ll be difficult."
Council leader Cllr Petrina Lees said: "Everything is going as it should be and there are no significant changes.
"We are doing our best to achieve a balanced budget and have to deliver services. Rising in the housing costs will help with our maintenance projects and building new council homes.
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"Nobody wants to increase charges but costs come in for the council and we need to balance the budget and we still need to deliver services.
"We are doing our best to achieve fiscal responsibility while providing services. The reduction in funding from Government has made it difficult to provide services but also giving out grants and that extra help needed.
"We are still the best council in Essex for council tax support."
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