York residents are paying the lowest council tax in the whole of North Yorkshire and among the lowest in the country for similar authorities, new figures show.

The Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions' figures show York is the cheapest council area in which to live in the county as well as the eighth cheapest of all the 47 unitary council areas in England.

The new figures also show that the residents of York will be paying below-average levels of council tax and a below-average rise in the level of council tax across the country.

Band D council tax figures in North Yorkshire range from £988 in Ryedale to £896 in Hambleton - the nearest to York's figure of £867 including the charge from North Yorkshire Police Authority. The typical band D figure for York is also lower than the average band D figure for London (£895), shire areas (£984) and metropolitan council areas (£1,017). The overall national average is £976.

City of York Council's council tax increase of 6.88 percent also compares well both nationally and locally. The average rise nationally in council tax is 8.5 percent. The average figure across North Yorkshire is 11.8 percent. Councillor Rod Hills, leader of City of York Council, hailed today's figures as good news for York residents. He said, "The council is efficiently run providing quality services at a lower cost to residents than in most similar areas across the country and the fact that nobody else in North Yorkshire pays less council tax than people do in York is significant.

"The debate over this year's budget needs to be seen in that context. The fact is that we have managed to find efficiency savings, meet inflationary costs, fund service improvements and maintain key services while keeping the scale and the rise of council tax in York relatively low.

"Whilst we all recognise that above-inflation rises affect the poorer citizens of York I would hope they would recognise the successful efforts, in comparison to others, that the council has made to keep increases to the minimum level." Simon Wiles, the council's acting Director of Resources, said total spending on council services in England, including money from government grants, the council tax and business rates, would on average be £937 per person for Unitary authorities in 2002/2003, whereas the figure for York was around £767.

He said, "This shows that a good standard of public services in York is provided for about £170 less per person per year than the average authority."

A meeting of City of York Council on February 21 agreed a £140m budget for the forthcoming council year - with almost £49m coming from council tax payers, £55m from business rates and the rest from government grants. The council voted to increase council tax by 6.88 percent.

City of York Council gets one of the lowest levels of grants to support its expenditure budget from central government. The entire grants system is under review as a result of a recent government White Paper and Mr Wiles said York would be campaigning hard to try to ensure that it receives a fairer share of central government resources in the future.

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NOTE FOR REPORTERS For the full breakdown of DTLR figures see www.press.dtlr.gov.uk (news section)