You can have your say on the proposals from 7 January 2025 until 4 February 2025
The information on the following pages explains the current draft budget proposals. The Executive will discuss and agree the proposals for public consultation at a public meeting on 3 December. The Executive could make changes to the draft budget at this meeting.
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Overview
As a council, we provide hundreds of services and we are building new facilities like leisure centres, care homes, and investing in schools. We have award-winning parks and Ofsted rates our social care services as good. However, like many councils, we are under tremendous financial pressure.
Local Government funding is a national issue. Many councils have needed financial help from the Government. We are not in that situation but like many councils, we need to make significant changes to our services.
Rising costs and increasing demand for some services were already putting significant pressure on many of our services. This coupled with a substantial increase in demand for adult social care and rising costs in children’s residential care means our costs are forecast to be £32m more than our income next year.
Adult and children’s social care are services that most of us hope we never need to use for ourselves or our families, but when they are needed, we must provide them. Not only are we required to provide them by law, but they also make the most fundamental difference to people's lives - those who need our help the most.
Working more efficiently is no longer enough to absorb the additional costs, and we cannot raise Council Tax, which funds most of our services, by more than 5 per cent without a referendum.
We have already taken action to stop all but essential recruitment and spending and we’ve reduced the number of senior managers at the council. This is not enough to ensure we can meet the demand for social care.
We have no choice but to make further changes so we can continue to meet the demand for the services we are required to provide by law.
We have set out our proposals for reducing our costs. This will mean we will stop providing some non-essential, non-statutory services, and we will provide less of some other services. Reducing the number of staff we employ is likely to mean we will be slower to respond to queries and some waiting times might be longer for some services.
You can read more about the draft budget over the next few pages, and you can read the draft budget papers for the Executive Committee meeting on our website.
Understanding our budget challenges and proposals for 2025-2026
Please read the information in the following pages (click on the boxes) to read about the proposals.
Explaining different council budgets
Follow each link below to find out more about our budgets.
Decision making process
Before your elected councillors make any decisions on the budget, it is right you get a chance to give your views on the proposals. Your voice matters. It is important we consider your views when we make decisions about services.
The draft revenue budget for 2025/6 has been published and the council’s Executive will meet to consider it on 3 December 2024.
The draft capital budget will be published on 23 December and the council’s Executive will meet to consider it on 7 January 2025.
You can watch these meetings online
You can have your say on the proposals from 7 January 2025 to 4 February 2025.
Elected councillors will consider your feedback before setting a final budget in February 2024.
In March, each household will receive an information leaflet that will explain the details of what has been agreed and its implications for service users and council taxpayers.
Note: Any of the proposals that could result in significant changes affecting residents or staff will be subject to appropriate consultation and equality impact assessments before a final decision is taken. This will allow the council to set out exactly how the changes would be implemented and for residents to give more detailed feedback to inform new policies and plans. At this stage, the council is seeking your feedback on the overall approach to balance the budget.
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