Following a public consultation last year, South Gloucestershire Council Cabinet will consider proposals for the authority’s budget for 2025/26 at their meeting on Monday 3 February.
Papers published today outline a plan for a balanced position for the next two years, by using reserves in the second year, while there are also warnings about potentially increasingly difficult financial times further ahead.
The budget will set out council tax rates for next year, as well as spending, investment and savings plans. While the financial settlement from national Government, announced in December, was slightly better than expected, and no new savings plans were proposed ahead of the consultation process, there is limited scope for new investments. However, the council is keen to spend new money where it is available, and to prioritise spending to improve the lives of people in South Gloucestershire.
A number of new investments are included in the proposed budget which, once agreed by Cabinet, will be considered by Full Council at their meeting on Wednesday 19 February.
The new spending plans include:
• Recruiting an additional Occupational Therapist to help meet the needs of residents who rely on assistive technology to live independently in their own homes.
• Ongoing support for domestic violence services, filling a gap in funding to maintain this vital help for victims and their families, helping to meet their needs identified in our needs assessment.
• Ongoing funding to support South Gloucestershire’s community of Armed Forces veterans.
• Speech and language therapy support for the children our youth justice team supports, which will help them increase education and training outcomes, help young people build productive lives and reduce re-offending rates.
While the budget is projected to balance for the next two years, through the public consultation exercise, local people told the council about their preferences for how the authority should approach the future savings that will be necessary.
They agreed that it should prioritise making the best use of its buildings and other assets, with a preference for renting out surplus buildings, space or land, rather than selling it, ensuring that where possible, it can be retained for future use.
Residents recognised the ongoing pressure on the council to reach the most efficient and effective agreements with external service providers and agencies where it is spending public money. They said very clearly that they wanted quality and support for local people to be the key driver and that costs should not be cut purely to meet short-term financial targets.
Local people also recognised that many of the challenges facing the council are outside of its control. While they saw the need for increasing council taxes and charges, in the ongoing cost of living crisis, they did not support ongoing above-inflation increases to plug funding gaps caused by a legacy of underfunding for things like social care. Residents expressed strong views that solutions to solve escalating costs should be driven nationally.
The proposed budget proposes a 4.99 per cent increase in Council Tax. That would make the South Gloucestershire Council element of a Band D property bill £1,931.33. Two per cent of this increase will be allocated directly to meeting escalating costs of delivering social care.
It also assumes that the existing savings programmes will deliver the already identified savings of £40.3million between this year and 2026/27. plus a further £1.1million in savings that have been identified in year and explored through the consultation process.
South Gloucestershire Council Leader, councillor Maggie Tyrrell, said: “It is increasingly difficult to balance council budgets in very challenging financial times. We are pleased that we have been able to do that this year, and through the use of our reserves, into next year.
“We are also not proposing to make further cuts to services, but we need to be honest with people that there are more difficult times ahead. The feedback and engagement we have had with people around this budget, particularly face to face through our ‘community conversations’, will help us to prioritise effectively, based on a better understanding of residents’ needs and views and the council’s position.
“We are also pleased that we have been able to prioritise funding to support some of our communities who most need our help. Sometimes a little can go a long way, and the support we want to be able to provide for young people who need help getting their lives back on track; for older people who want to live independently; and for our veterans’ community, are really important for us.”
Council co-leader, councillor Ian Boulton, added: “We understand how many local people are still feeling the pressure of the cost of living crisis from just a couple of years ago. While it’s obviously different for the council, we continue to have rising costs while our primary way of raising more money to pay for services is through council tax. That is a burden felt by residents, particularly by those struggling the most.
“We have kept the proposed increase this year as low as we can, while still balancing our budget. We expect there may be more difficult times ahead, but we are committed to keeping up our community conversations. These conversations give the council and residents the opportunity to explain to each other what has to be done. They also allow local people to tell us how they want us to approach the choices we will need to make in the future, and for us to listen to how they want us to prioritise decisions on spending, saving and support.
“By presenting a balanced budget for the next two years, we are able to take the time to make sure the choices we make for the future can be well thought out, well explained and well understood by everyone.”
The Budget will first be examined by the Council’s Scrutiny Committee on Wednesday 29 January at Item 10c: https://council.southglos.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?MId=17132&x=1&
Papers for the meeting of the Cabinet on Monday 3 February will be available to view on the council website from Friday 24 January: https://council.southglos.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=134&MId=16939
