Most local authorities do not begin setting their budgets until February, but Mid-Devon District Council has just decided on a self-imposed budget cap.

It has pledged to peg its share of the council tax to a percentage increase no higher than a rise in the state pension - expected to be between 2% and 3%.

The move has been welcomed by pensioner campaigners against high council tax.

Help planning

Council leader David Pugsley said it was good housekeeping to look at a budget sooner rather than later.

"What we are really doing is fixing our resources before we fix our expenditure, and that way round we are forcing ourselves to bring our expenditure into line with our income.

"Other councils tend to do it the other way round. They decide what to spend first, and then they see how much it will cost, and then they realise they have got to cut back on some of it."

Albert Venison, of the Devon Pensioners' Forum, said it would help pensioners plan ahead.

"Nobody has floated this idea before. If the other councils don't follow suit then woe betide them because I think it will work."