COUNCIL house rents, council tax and parking charges are set to rise next year after city councillors approved their draft budget for consultation.

Oxford City Council is aiming to make £1.74m of savings in its budget for 2013-14 to deal with reductions in Government funding.

Council taxpayers will face a rise in its precept of two per cent.

Members of the council’s executive board agreed to press ahead with the plan at a meeting last night at the Town Hall.

Deputy leader Ed Turner said: “We will launch an electronic consultation which will ask a number of questions on the budget and the council tax.

“There is a lot of stuff in here that no-one wants to do like increasing the car parking. But we have been dealt a very difficult hand.”

The authority wants to raise off-street car parking charges by two per cent and park-and-ride charges from £1.50 to £2 a day, and is also proposing an increase in council house rents of 4.61 per cent from April 2013.

But the council will continue will plans to invest £40m in its housing stock and other property assets.

The council’s apprenticeship scheme will also receive an extra £100,000 a year.

Councillors expected a reduction of 1.67 per cent in the grant it gets from the Government, but were told last night that the reduction from Government in overall spending power was actually 2.3 per cent.