Devon pensioners have protested at county hall

The Audit Commission has been investigating why the average council tax in England increased by 13%.

Devon's increase was nearly 18%, leading to widespread protests by pensioners who said they could not afford to pay.

The report blames the increases on government spending demands over schools, roads and the elderly as well as higher National Insurance contributions.

Although ministers have claimed government grants were well above inflation and blamed councillors for not budgeting properly, the report says the money received from Whitehall was "the single biggest determinant factor" in this year's increases.

A county council spokeswoman said: "The government's own inspectors have nailed the myth that profligate councils are driving up council tax.

"The Audit Commission report confirms the county council's well documented view that there needs to be root and branch reform of council tax."

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Earlier this year Devon complained that the region as a whole had received the second lowest level of government grant of any English region.

The report supports Devon's claim that resources were shifted to the Midlands and the North and away from councils in the South.

It also recommends that the government finds a more acceptable way of controlling council tax increases rather than the capping powers that ministers have threatened for next year's budgets.

Local Government Minister Nick Raynsford said the government was already doing much of what the commission recommended.

And a review of the balance between money raised locally and centrally in paying for councils was already under way.

But Teignbridge Liberal Democrat MP Richard Younger Ross has demanded Mr Raynsford should apologise to the county's tax-payers for saying the county council was to blame for this year's council tax increase and for misleading them.

Albert Venison, who has been campaigning against the rise with other pensioners in Devon, said: "It does not matter what happens in 2004, we cannot afford to pay any increase in council tax."