Welcome to our council tax website, where you will be able to find further information about your council tax charge and the services it helps to support, how to pay your council tax and more about Essex County Council's budget.

Once again, we have been able to limit the increase to our share of your council tax to 1.9%, or just 39p per week for a band D household. This figure is the same as last year and is one of the lowest of any county council in the country.

We are pleased to have met last year's pledge to keep any rise below inflation despite the ever increasing demands on public finances and we are making the same pledge again for next year.

We place the greatest importance on spending taxpayers' money wisely and that is why we have launched a transformation programme to ensure the council is as efficient as it can be. We have appointed a globally recognised leader, IBM, to work in partnership with us to truly produce 'more for less'. This will help us achieve our challenging target of £300 million of savings and avoid cuts to the services our customers value.

Frequently asked questions

• How do I pay my council tax?
• How can I get help with paying my council tax?
• Why not cap council tax increases for pensioners to the same percentage used for increasing state pension amounts?
• Why do I have to pay for services that I don't use?