WILTSHIRE has been named as one of the places having one of the highest rises in council tax.

The average council tax bill for some parts of England has reached almost £2,000, it was revealed as council tax levels for English local authorities for 2016/17 were published by the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG).

Many areas are seeing their biggest rise this decade, because of new rules which allow certain councils to increase bills by an additional two per cent to help fund adult social care. Council tax had been frozen for six years.

In four local authorities, the average bill per household for 2016/17 will top £1,800 for the first time.

The highest figure in England is Elmbridge in Surrey, where the average council tax per dwelling is now £1,893.

Along with Elmbridge, the councils with average bills now above £1,800 are South Bucks, Chiltern and Surrey Heath.

Runnymede in Surrey sees the largest rise in cash terms, up £96 on last year.

Other big increases include Wiltshire Council's £84 with Liverpool up £88 and Wealden in East Sussex up £85.

In Wiltshire - which covers Royal Wootton Bassett, Purton and Cricklade - the average bill for a band D house is £1,271.

The rate increased by two per cent bringing the average bill for a band D house to £1,246, while the two per cent social care levy increases the figure to around £1,271.

On top of this, each household also pays money in its council tax to cover the cost of Wiltshire Police, the new joint fire authority and the town or parish council for its area.

The lowest rise is Wandsworth in London, where the average bill is £622 and just two areas will see the average cost of bills go down, both in London: Kensington & Chelsea (a fall of £1) and Hounslow (£6).

Responding to the announcement, Communities Secretary Greg Clark said: "Our historic four-year funding deal for councils both gives them certainty to plan ahead, and meets the clear request to prioritise care for elderly and vulnerable people, with a social care funding package of up to £3.5 billion.

"The figures show how councils are keeping council tax low, and using the freedom they asked for to set a social care precept as part of local bills.

"Even with this, council tax will still be lower in real terms in 2019/20 than in 2009/10 - and this year's increase is still lower than the average 6.2% annual increase between 1997 and 2010."

The average Band D council tax in England in 2016/17 is £1,530, an increase of £46 or 3.1% on last year.

This is the highest rise so far this decade. Last year the average increase was 1.1%

The biggest rise for Band D properties per type of council are:

County council: Kent - 4%

Metropolitan councils: Birmingham - 4.65%

Unitary authorities: Cornwall - 4.84%

District councils: Pendle - 9.32%