Derbyshire County Council Propose A 3.75% Council Tax Rise
Derbyshire County Council are proposing a 3.75% council tax rise for 2023-2024
The following statement was posted on the Derbyshire County Council web site
We’re proposing a rise of 3.75% for 2023-24, which is expected to be the lowest in the East Midlands and predicted to be amongst the lowest nationally.
Council Leader Councillor Barry Lewis said that while a rise was necessary to ensure vital services could be protected and the council could continue to support older and vulnerable people, we had sought to keep the proposed rise as low as possible to protect household budgets already stretched due to cost of living rises.
Our Cabinet will meet on Thursday 2 February 2023 to consider the council tax proposal, alongside details of how we will manage and spend a proposed £675 million net budget for the coming year.
The Budget Revenue Report to be discussed sets out our current financial position and the impact of external factors including inflation, rising fuel and energy costs, a continuing increase in demand for adult social care and children’s services and the funding of previous year pay increases for council staff, agreed at a national level but to be met from local council budgets.
Inflation alone has seen an extra £39.6 million needed to keep services running at the same level for 2023-24.
The report will also detail the government’s Autumn Statement 2022 and the Provisional Local Government Finance Settlement, before highlighting significant service pressures that we face currently and in future years and the total budget savings required over the coming year and the term of the 5-Year Financial Plan to 2027-28.
The report states that over the coming year we have a savings target of £16.2 million, and over the course of the 5-Year Financial Plan savings must be made which are estimated currently at £46.7 million.
The proposed 3.75% council tax rise, if agreed by Full Council, will be made up of 1.25% which will go directly to funding adult social care costs and 2.5% for general council expenditure.
The 1.25% raised for adult social care would result in a sum of £4.7 million which would be spent on staffing and running home care service, helping people to come out of hospital more quickly and freeing up hospital beds, and staff retention payments.
Nationally, the government has allowed local authorities to raise their council tax by a maximum of 5%, and it is expected that around 80% of county councils will raise their council tax by this amount.
In Derbyshire, if the 3.75% is agreed by Full Council on 15 February 2023 it would see an extra 80p per week (£41.55 per year) for an average band B household and for a band D household the rise would be £1.03 per week (£53.42 per year).
Councillor Barry Lewis said:
“Derbyshire County Council has always been a well-run and efficient council offering value for money to its residents and balancing its books every year due to sound financial and efficient management.
“However, it has been a significant challenge to put forward a balanced budget for the year ahead, with many external factors beyond our control to take into consideration, including inflation, rising fuel and energy costs and pressures on adult and children’s social care where demand continues to rise.
“We very much welcome additional funding to come from government for adult social care as part of the Provisional Local Government Finance Settlement, which will amount to around an extra £21 million for the coming year to support vital services. While it is never enough we recognise this will help significantly.
“Setting the council tax is never easy, and we fully acknowledge that any rise in household bills will not be welcomed during these challenging times, but we must raise funds to meet the costs of providing vital services that people rely on, so we must strike a balance.
“The proposed 3.75% rise is expected to be the lowest in the East Midlands and among the lowest in the country, and we have worked hard to keep it as low as possible and not pass the rising costs in their entirety on to our residents.
“If agreed, a portion of the council tax will go directly to fund our adult social care home care service and our home care workers. It’s essential we retain these valuable staff and ensure they can get on with their jobs, working hard to get people out of hospital and into further care or back home.”
Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Corporate Services and Budget Councillor Simon Spencer said:
"Unfortunately, the money we will receive will not meet our full requirements and there may be difficult decisions that need to be taken in the future, but as an enterprising council we continue to work hard to ensure essential services continue and look to find new ways of working that will make us as efficient as we can be while providing the best value for money."
At its meeting on Thursday 2 February 2023, Cabinet will make its budget recommendations which will then go to Full Council to consider when it meets on Wednesday 15 February 2023.
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