Cabinet backs budget proposals, including keeping library open and 5.99% rise in council tax

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Cheshire East Cabinet have today (Tuesday, 6th February) backed the Council's budget plans for 2018 to 21 which includes a proposal to increase council tax by 5.99% and keeping Alderley Edge Library open.

This follows a pre-budget consultation, launched in November, which set out initial proposals for how the council could target resources more effectively and save money – while achieving balanced finances.

It is now proposed to that Council Tax be increased by 5.99 per cent. This would add up to £1.28 per week to the average household Council Tax bill. A Band D property bill would rise from £1,324.92 to £1,404.28 – an increase of £1.53 per week.

This follows a 4.99 per cent increase in 2017 and a 3.75 per cent increase in 2016, after five years of Council Tax freeze.

Key proposals include earmarking £2m from the New Homes Bonus scheme, to be used in our communities, though the method for doing this is still under consideration.

The proposed revenue budget is balanced for 2018-19 with net revenue spending of £267.9m and total capital investment of £326.1m identified over the next three years. A total of £197m is estimated to be spent over the next three years on maintaining and improving our highways network.

Cheshire East invited feedback from residents, businesses, councillors, staff, town and parish councils and other stakeholders to inform decisions.

As a result of people's comments the Council amended some of its proposed savings which included:

● Keeping all libraries open – axing proposals to close those in Alderley Edge, Disley and Prestbury;

● A reduction in the savings to be found from highways from £500,000 to £150,000; and

● Scaling back a reduction to bus route subsidies from £1.57m to £1.1m – ensuring 97 per cent of subsidised services are retained.

The latest financial reports take place against a challenging background of big reductions in government grants to councils and rising demand for both adult social care and children in care.

For Cheshire East, this means expected reductions of central government grants, inflationary costs and rising demand totalling more than £70m over the next three years.

Councillor Paul Bates, Cheshire East Council Cabinet member for finance and communications, said: "These reports, backed by cabinet, outline how the council has continued to build on the achievements of recent years and maintains strong overall financial health, performance, resilience and value for money.

"This financial year presented a number of challenges for all UK local authorities, as issues such as inflation and increasing demand in care services for children and adults were compounded by falls in government funding – a funding reduction totalling £12.4m for Cheshire East. This is set to fall by a further £12.9m in 2018/19.

"In Cheshire East, the number of residents receiving care and support from adult social care is increasing by four per cent a year and the number of children in social care placements has increased by 17 per cent in the last year, in line with other councils.

"Adult social care services across the whole country experienced rising caseloads and increasing complexity of care needs, as well as rising costs from minimum wage requirements for care providers. However, these factors were particularly significant for Cheshire East, as the number of people aged over 65 is already above the national average – and is rising faster than average.

"The council's net expenditure on adult social care services was almost £100m in 2016/17, which is equivalent to three-times the required spending on any other service area. This council will always prioritise services for vulnerable people, despite the financial challenges. But this means other services will have to deliver savings.

"Robust action is being taken across the authority to reduce budgetary pressures and ensure balanced finances – as we have successfully done in previous years. And we will be lobbying the government again to ensure future financial settlements will continue to allow us to achieve this, while protecting essential frontline services.

"We are aware, however, that local areas have differing priorities and, to support this, the budget contains a proposal to set aside £2m of revenue from the New Homes Bonus over the next two years.

"Against a backdrop of challenging circumstances, it is pleasing to note the council is set to deliver a financial outturn within 0.05 per cent of its net budget in 2017-18, in line with our forecast, with a projected overspend of just £100,000 out of a net budget of £264.8m. It is also delivering significant achievements against the council's corporate plan and wider business plans that will help ensure Cheshire East remains a great place to live, work, visit and do business."

Jan Willis, Cheshire East Council's director of finance and procurement, said: "There is a fine balance between making efficiencies in services and still enabling services to meet residents' needs. This council will continue to look for innovative ways to make every pound deliver the best outcome for local people."

The budget and Council Tax for 2018-19 will be decided by a vote of elected members at the February 22nd meeting of full council.

Tags:
Cheshire East Cabinet, Cheshire East Council, Council Tax
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Comments

Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.

Tony Haluradivth
Thursday 8th February 2018 at 7:56 am
I thought yhat any increase anove 5% had to be put to a referendum. Am I missing something here? They had also announced an increase a few weeks ago am I sure we wre told 4.99% in that announcent. This will hit us hard as we already use our pensions to buy in care for my wife (despite what folk hear about free care it most certainly is not available widely) as we are not footballers or CEOs our pensions are tight and any hike in council tax has a big impact on our lives (plus our heating and Care costs are to increase too). I do not understand the Council on this (especially as they waste hundreds and thousands of our pounds on paying inflated salaries for "gardening leave: and retention salaries for staff being investigated for misconduct or corruption or "you name it".) There is naught left to do but find my pitchfork..
Tony Haluradivth
Thursday 8th February 2018 at 8:14 am
Please excuse my typos folks (things are not what they used to be ;). So having checked I am not going loopy I have referred back to a report on this site and a quote from Councillor Craig Browne (this dated 11th December) which said that Council tax was "going up by 4.99%). It seems that they misled us just 2 months ago and intend to blackmail us by threatening library closures etc
Jonathan Follows
Thursday 8th February 2018 at 8:28 am
Sajid Javid, House of Commons 19 December 2017: "I am conscious of calls for further flexibility in the setting of council tax. We all want to ease growing pressure on local government services, but I am sure that none of us wants to see hard-working taxpayers saddled with ever-higher bills. This settlement needs to strike a balance between those two aims, giving councils the ability to increase their core council tax requirement by an additional 1% without a local referendum, bringing the core principle in line with inflation."

The limit to the increase without requiring a local referendum for councils is therefore "up to 3%" for 2018 plus 3% for the local "precept" for funding social care, hence 5.99% for Cheshire East, reported variously including http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-42418402.
Tony Haluradivth
Friday 9th February 2018 at 10:37 am
Thanks for that and Sajid's sneaky announcement went way under the radar there ( just before Christmas) and was obviously made a few weeks after Craig's observation. Of course Government can raise the threshold of when to hold a referendum each year (subtly timed just before Councils make the "crunch" decision on final Council Tax figures) and before we know it there will be a free for all and never ending Council Tax hikes. Of course they can blackmail us emotionally by threatening Library closures, highway maintenance cuts, school budget cuts and will then say they have "saved the day" by finding the money needed by massive tax hikes. When really they have to keep finding the money for the "pay offs" and legal disputes and lawyers fees and massive CEO salaries. I am a Tory voter and I can safely say that Cheshire East has passed it's "sell by date" and that we are being manipulated folks. I believe I may as well start sharpening that pitchfork after all....