County Hall plans rise in Council Tax bills to balance the books

The authority revealed its budget plan for the next four years today (Wednesday), which includes raising average Band D Council Tax bills by £1.54 a week from April to help balance the books – County Hall has the largest share of bills which also include contributions for district councils, fire service, police and parish councils.

The increase would generate an extra £20M but the council said this would be swallowed up by the rise in National Living Wage and National Insurance it needs to pay employees.

With the sharp raise in the demand for services and inflation rises, costs are increasing by £217M, compared to expected extra income and savings of £122M.

A combination of innovative initiatives and a reduced back office – which are both driving down costs by £33M - plus the Council Tax rise, means the books will balance next year but relentless pressure on services could create a £95M budget gap by 2029, County Hall warns.

The budget proposals include earmarking just under £100M more to support vulnerable children and adults.

An extra £12M of capital is also proposed to help fix potholes and repair roads, taking the total spend on roads, major schemes and tackling flooding to £125M over four years.

Councillor Lee Breckon, cabinet member for resources, said: “Despite being the lowest funded county, we’re high performing.

"We’ve saved £276M since 2010, showing how efficient and lean we are.

“We heavily rely on Council Tax to fund vital services.

"I know wallets are stretched but without an increase, we couldn’t deliver the level of service we know our residents need.

“Twenty-million-pounds sounds a lot but is wiped out by the National Living Wage and National Insurance rises.”

One of the key budget pressures is the 60 per cent rise in demand for children’s social care and a 33 per cent increase in prices for placements, which have pushed up costs by £15M over the last two years

Special educational needs and disability support is also costly for the council with 90 per cent more children having education, health and care plans compared to five years ago

The rise in construction price has meant the costs of infrastructure schemes has been driven up significantly with inflation.

Acting council leader, Councillor Deborah Taylor, said: “Our financial position remains extremely challenging, although the strong grip we’ve maintained over our finances has ensured we are not at crisis point.

“I’m proud that pioneering work to drive down costs is paying off but the stark reality is that surging demand is not receding.

“This squeezes what we can spend elsewhere but we’re still fixing 7,300 potholes a year, supporting over 1,000 households to stay warm, gritting 1,300 miles of road each night during winter, and much more.”

The county council’s yearly budget totals £616M – the authority is one of the biggest organisations in Leicestershire, spending around £10M every week on crucial services for residents.

County Hall continues to fight for more funding and points out that if it were funded at the same level as neighbours Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire County Council, they would have around £100M more each year.