Please see the following release from CBC:
The Executive has now agreed the draft budget for 2024/25, and a public consultation is open for feedback.
We are faced with making some stark choices to balance the budget.
This year the council has faced significantly increased costs in areas such as educational transport, support for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), and adult social care. Meanwhile, inflation has been running at nearly 10% for a whole year. The decision last year not to raise Council Tax, also reduced the available income to fund services, by up to £9.5million this year, and every year going forwards.
Faced with an alarming gap between the council’s income, and the cost of services, the new Independent administration has been very clear that the council must make substantial savings in order to protect key services to the public.
The draft budget proposes the use of more than £16million of financial reserves. Funding services by using reserves is not without risk, and isn’t something we are keen to rely upon. To continue to deplete council reserves in this way reduces the council’s ability to deal with unexpected changes in costs or demand for services, at a time when there is likely to be continued economic pressure. The hunt for savings does not stop here.
Increasing Council Tax is not something the new administration wanted to do, but it is now a necessity. We are acutely aware of the increased costs residents face, so the proposal to increase Council Tax has not been made without careful consideration. Unfortunately, it is not possible to continue to protect or improve vital services without increasing Council Tax by 5%. This will generate £9.7million of additional funding for services.
Even with all of the measures proposed in the draft budget, the gap between income and proposed spend still sits at £1.9million. This gap must be filled by the end of February and the public consultation will seek the public’s view on the proposed budget and further options, including charging for collecting garden waste and/or reducing bus subsidies.
The challenging financial situation makes it even more important that the public have their say. We have brought this draft budget setting timescale forward to December (previously January ) so we can allow more time for public consultation, and for the results to be considered before recommending a final budget.
The consultation is available at www.centralbedfordshire.gov.
Feedback from the consultation will be collated and presented to the February Executive, in advance of decision making on the finalised budget which will be recommended to Full Council.