Spending plans for 2023/24
In the next financial year (from April 2023 until March 2024), the Council expects to be spending around £475 million on its services and operations across Central Bedfordshire. This is known as the revenue budget and is mainly funded through Council Tax and business rates. The diagram below shows how we are planning to spend this money.
Half (50%) of your Council Tax is spent on services to support elderly and other vulnerable adults and children.
This budget also funds our core services. These include services that everyone has access to, such as refuse and recycling, roads, leisure, libraries, parks and countryside services.
This receipt shows what a weekly bill for Central Bedfordshire Council services looks like for an average household (Band D).
In 2023/24 we are investing more money in some key areas, such as providing care for older people and adults with disabilities, providing more support for children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and children who need our protection.
We estimate that we will need £5 million more to provide support for children with special educational needs and disabilities, education transport and looking after children who need our protection (including fostering).
We estimate we will need £4.7 million more funding to meet the increasingly complex care packages needed for older people and adults with a learning or physical disability and individuals with a mental health condition, because their needs are increasingly complex, they cost more.
The cost of running Council services has increased £16.6 million due to inflation. We had already budgeted to allow for some increase in inflation, so we are able to absorb some of this. Our continued focus on being more efficient also means we can offset these pressures and not increase Council Tax.
We also have plans to invest in more infrastructure projects funded from our capital budget. This is not funded through Council Tax, it is funded through loans or selling land or buildings the Council owns and reinvesting this money.