A council tax freeze in England will be extended to 2012-13 under plans to be unveiled by chancellor George Osborne.
The £805m move will be paid for by a Whitehall "underspend", aides said.
The government cannot force councils to freeze bills - but it is offering to give those which limit spending rises to 2.5% the money they need. Mr Osborne will also tell the Tory Party conference in Manchester that he remains determined to stick to the coalition's deficit reduction targets.

Under pressure

The chancellor is under pressure to spell out detailed plans to get the UK economy growing again amid mounting criticism from Labour and senior figures in his own party. BBC political correspondent Ross Hawkins says that with little spare cash for crowd-pleasing announcements Mr Osborne's speech will focus on the government's current economic strategy. He is expected to address head-on arguments for a U-turn on spending cuts and argue that his tough deficit reduction plan is even more important now because of the sovereign debt crisis in....Read more here---> BBC News - George Osborne extends council tax freeze