A FIRE authority chief has said it has no choice but to put up council tax because of low Government funding.

The "tight settlement" given to Buckinghamshire & Milton Keynes Fire Authority led to the proposed five per cent increase it claimed.

Authority chairman, Councillor David Rowlands, said: "The government's contribution to this year's budget was only one per cent higher than last year's, and it is proposing rises of only 0.5 per cent for the next two years."

The authority takes a small part of the final council tax bill - about 4p in every pound - to give it a budget of about £27m.

For the next financial year this will push payments to the service on a band D property from £52.33 to £54.95.

Cllr Rowlands said: "These tight settlements give us very little room for manoeuvre, and increase the percentage of funding we have to find from council tax payers."

The Government last week praised England's fire service after a report about it by public spending watchdog the Audit Commission.

He said: "Only last week the government praised us for our continued success in helping reduce the number of fire deaths and injuries to a national 50-year low.

"We would have appreciated a little extra money with the thank-you letter."

The proposal was made today by the authority's executive committee, of which Cllr Rowlands is also chairman of.

The authority will meet on February 15 to decide the final amount.

Council and police chiefs get the rest of the final council tax bill, which will be announced on February 21.