NINE out of ten taxpayers across the country are facing increases in their annual bills from next month, according to a new survey.

Residents in some areas will see their bills rise by almost five per cent as councils impose an adult social care tax levy to help fund care of the elderly.

Out of all 353 local authorities surveyed, only 22 are freezing council tax bills while just one – East Hampshire – has said it is cutting the amount, according the Press Association figures.

They show a 180 degree turnaround from 2012/13, when nine out of 10 authorities froze or cut council tax and just 35 raised it.

Local authorities across the region have imposed increases ranging from 3.99 percent and 4.99 per cent.

Darlington Borough Council leader, Councillor Bill Dixon said many people in the town feel like they are being asked to pay twice to foot the bill for social care.

“It is absolutely outrageous that councils are being forced to imposed these tax rises,” he said. “The Government has shifted services away from themselves while cutting funding to local authorities. People are paying their income tax and national insurance while also being asked to pay the social care levy - they think they are facing a double whammy.”

And Tim Roache, general secretary of the public sector GMB union, called the levy “a sticking plaster on a gaping wound”.

He added: “That almost every local authority is being forced to raise council tax to meet the even the basic needs of communities up and down the country shows just how far the Government have gone in abdicating responsibility for public services.”

A Local Government Information Unit survey earlier this year showed that adult social care was the top priority for councils, but 91 per cent of the 131 councils asked felt tax rises were not a viable way to address the funding gap.

However the think tank’s chief executive Jonathan Carr-West said, he was not aware of any “mass public revolt” over the levy.

Earlier this year a row was sparked over the Conservative-run Surrey council, which was threatening to hold a referendum on whether to increase council tax by 15 per cent. It dropped the plan in February, prompting questions over whether it had been offered a “sweetheart deal”.