COUNCIL taxpayers in Manchester can expect their bill to rise by around two per cent next year, say town hall chiefs.

But the proposal sparked a row about cuts in vital services in order to foot the bill for the Commonwealth Games.

Earlier this week Stephen Byers, the minister responsible for councils, announced a 4.7 per cent increase in the government grant given to Manchester.

This, along with the council tax rise, will allow an extra £10.4m to be ploughed into the education budget and £5.7m into social services.

The council’s executive member for finance Claire Nangle said she was ‘‘delighted’’ with the increase.

‘‘We are determined to honour our commitment to keep the council tax increase as low as possible,’’ she said. ‘‘The planned increase will, for the third year running, represent one of the lowest rises in Greater Manchester and in the UK.

‘‘We can state categorically that this will not be at the expense of providing good, efficient services to local people.’’

‘Cuts’

But Liberal Democrat council finance spokeswoman Jackie Pearcey claimed other services would be cut as the council has to find £85m to fund the Commonwealth Games.

‘‘Labour’s figures don’t add up, unless there are cuts in services,’’ she said. ‘‘The government has told the council to increase spending on education and social services, which means that there will be cuts for almost every other area of the budget, including leisure, roads, libraries and cleansing. These services are being cut to pay for the Games.

‘‘Labour promised the Games would not harm services and that is clearly not the case.’’

She added that most of the council tax burden is borne by the less-well off.

Coun Pearcey said the council was also ignoring Manchester’s veterans who receive a war pension. Unlike any other council in the region, the town hall takes their pensions into account when calculating council benefits.