Harrow Borough Council's ruling Labour group has set out its ‘budget achievements’ before the authority sets its council tax tomorrow.

The administration says it runs one of the lowest-funded councils in London, and is being forced to save £83 million through cuts and improvements to services in its next budget.

The authority's budget for the 12 months from April - including a 1.99 per cent council tax rise - will be set at the Civic Centre tomorrow.

Council leader Councillor David Perry, who outlined the 'highlights' in a meeting with the Harrow Times, said: “The majority of the savings, 50 per cent, laid out in our budget come from back office savings and efficiencies.

“There have been difficult decisions to make but we have prioritised our frontline services.”

Cllr Perry says more than £715,000 has been invested into paying for 15 extra social workers to help some of the borough’s most vulnerable families.

A further £215,000 has been allocated to fund additional staff to deal with housing benefit and council tax support queries, while additional money has been put forward to tackle homeless in the borough.

An additional £2.5 million of income from regeneration plans is also predicted.

Cllr Sachin Shah, who is responsible for finance, said: “There are more than 100 lines in the budget, but we want people to look at it as a whole. We have cuts to make but we have tried to protect the most vulnerable people in the borough.”

A council tax rise of 1.99 per cent also features - the most a council can increase its share of the tax by without a referendum of voters.

Library services, which saw £100,000 of cuts this year, will face further cuts of £500,000 in 2015/6 with plans to reduce the number of libraries from ten to six.

Subsidies to Harrow Arts Centre will also be reduced by £615,000 over the next two years while a business plan is drawn up to eliminate all long-term funding for the centre.

There will also be cuts to parks as services are reduced to the statutory minimum, making savings of £327,000 over the next two years.