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A revised council plan
and a series of measures to ensure a balanced budget for the year ahead
have been endorsed by the Cabinet of West Sussex County Council at a
meeting today (Tuesday 30 January) at County Hall, Chichester.
Following a public
consultation, the Cabinet has confirmed its commitment to four key
priority areas, underpinned by a cross cutting theme of ‘protecting the
environment’. The priorities are:
- Keeping people safe in vulnerable situations
- A sustainable and prosperous economy
- Helping people and communities fulfil their
potential
- Making best use of resources
Leader of West Sussex
County Council, Cllr Paul Marshall said: “We asked residents how they
felt about our priorities, and we were reassured to see more than two
thirds strongly agreed or tended to agree with our approach. We are
therefore confident that our priorities are right, and they will
continue to inform our decisions about how we use resources in the
coming year.
“Following the
consultation, we are also proposing to continue with additional
investment to areas our residents have told us are important, such as
roads and highways and education and skills.”
The council reported in
July last year that it was looking at ways to close a £45m budget gap
for the coming year (2024/25). Balancing the budget for the year ahead
has been made even more challenging with the publication of the
provisional Local Government Finance Settlement from central
government.
Cllr Jeremy Hunt,
Cabinet Member for Finance and Property, said: “Whilst the funding
offered to us by government is welcome, unfortunately it remains a long
way short of what we need in order to cover the cost of vital services
for our residents.
“A spiralling increase
in demand and cost of services, particularly in social care, home to
school transport, and funding the National Living Wage, has made
preparing next year’s budget even more challenging.
“In order to balance
our budget, we have proposed budget reductions of £15.7m, a one off use
of reserves, and an increase in core council tax of 2.99%, plus an
additional adult social care precept of 2%.
“We don’t put forward
these proposals lightly, but our priority is to make best use of our
limited resources and do all we can to protect essential front line
services.
“Our reserves are vital
for managing the many risks and uncertainties we are facing next year,
as well as our financial stability over the longer term. That is why we
have plans in place to replenish any use of our Budget Management
Reserve.
“However, the lobbying
we, and others, have undertaken over the last few weeks has resulted in
government recognising the pressures we and others are facing and the
additional funding they announced only last week is most welcome. We
await the final settlement for confirmation, but it may mean we no
longer need to rely on our reserves to balance next year’s budget.”
The revised council
plan and the proposed budget will now go before a meeting of the Full
Council on Friday 16 February for a final decision. At Full
Council, the proposals and any amendments put forward will be debated,
followed by a vote.
The budget proposals
set out how the County Council is expected to spend £2 billion during
2024/25 on day-to-day services and £131.6m through capital investment
into areas such as schools, highways, and the environment. After taking
account of grants, fees and charges and other contributions, net
revenue expenditure of £761.4m is expected.
Part of the budget
proposes to include an extra £81.9m in revenue spending on vital
services including:
- an additional £31.2m for vulnerable children
and young people,
- £18.3m more for adults’ social care,
- an extra £4m to maintain the county’s 4,000km
of roads
- and £27.8m to manage increased costs as
inflation levels remains high
Cllr Paul Marshall
added: “We know people in our communities, especially the most
vulnerable, rely on our services and we will continue to do all we can
to protect those services and invest in our county.
“Alongside our MPs, we
are committed to continuing to apply pressure to government to properly
fund local government so we can deliver the vital services our
residents, businesses, and local communities need and deserve.”
You can find the agenda
for Full
Council and watch a live webcast of the meeting, or watch again at
a later date, via our website www.westsussex.gov.uk.
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