A budget fit for the future
Continuing to keep our communities safe and well, and supporting businesses with their ongoing recovery from coronavirus restrictions are our priorities for the next financial year.
Due to cuts in government funding, and no funding to meet increasing demand for care services or inflation, we have made around £173 million in savings since 2010 – and by 2023 we have to save at least another £18 million. At the same time, demand on services is growing as people live longer and the borough’s population continues to grow.
To help us maintain essential local services, our budget proposals include a 1.98% rise in council tax. The Social Care Precept will be added to this and used to raise an additional 1% to help protect adult social care, totalling an increase of 2.98%.
We want to prioritise services for vulnerable people, such as social care for children and adults, while also doing our best to maintain other services such as waste and recycling collection, street cleaning and roads maintenance.
What do we do for you and our communities?
We provide lots of services that people see, like emptying your bins, cutting grass, clearing litter and maintaining roads. But we also provide a lot of services which many people don’t see that require far more money than providing many of our common day-to-day services.
For example, we:
- look after vulnerable children who need our help
- support elderly people to stay as happy and independent as possible
- care for people with mental health problems
- help families with housing problems to prevent them becoming homeless
Looking after children and people who need care in their own home takes up around two thirds of our budget.