LOCAL authorities in the region were given the go-ahead yesterday to push through inflation-busting council tax rises after escaping a Government "cap".

Ministers had threatened to get tough with any council planning an increase above "low single figures" to protect pensioners and other householders on fixed incomes.

But, in the end, Nick Raynsford, the local government minister, announced that only six councils are to be capped. None are in the North.

It means district authorities can impose tax rises seven or eight times greater than the Government's new measure of inflation, which stands at only 1.1 per cent.

They include Darlington (9.6 per cent), Middlesbrough (8.1 per cent), Redcar and Cleveland (7.2 per cent), Teesdale (7.2 per cent) Hartlepool (seven per cent) and Stockton (seven per cent).

The Tories immediately claimed the Government had used the threat of capping to distract taxpayers from its failure to fund local government properly.

Philip Hammond, Tory local government spokesman, said: "For all the bluster and posturing, council tax payers, councils and users of local authority services have once again been let down by Labour.

"The capping process, which the Government promised would be a lifeboat for pensioners and those on fixed incomes, has ended up as a shipwreck of a policy."

Mr Raynsford also backed away from capping Durham fire authority, which is increasing its precept - its part of the overall council tax - by 19.8 per cent.

Instead, it was among a further seven police and fire authorities warned that next year's tax rise will be capped when Government grants are announced at the end of the year.

County Durham's chief fire officer George Herbert described the announcement as "disappointing and worrying".

Yesterday, Mr Raynsford insisted it would be wrong to cap authorities on the "crude basis" of a big rise, which did not take into account individual circumstances.

Therefore, district authorities were only being capped if the council tax was going up by more than 8.5 per cent and the budget was more than two per cent above last year.

On average, Band D council tax bills will rise by 5.9 per cent this year, far lower than last year's increase which was 12.9 per cent.

That sparked a number of protests by pensioners, who said their bigger bills far outstripped the increases in their state pensions.