Council has £15m budget gap to fill despite 2.99pc council tax rise

Trafford council has a £15m budget gap going into 2022-23 financial year.

Council tax is going up and a raft of service savings are planned to ensure this gap is smaller than it otherwise would have been.

The borough’s overall budget is being increased from £179.47m to £192.57m this financial year – an uplift of £13.1m.

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Before any tax increases or service savings, the council’s budget gap would have been £20.14m – including £7.1m from Covid-19 pressures.

To fund the overall budget increase and plug much of the budget gap for this financial year, Trafford council is increasing council tax by 2.99pc.

This means the average Band C home in the borough will go from paying £1,528.95 to £1,574.67 a year.

Over £5m is also being shaved off the council’s costs by trying to improve the efficiency of its services.

A huge £1.468m worth of savings are needed in the borough’s children’s services, already struggling after an ‘inadequate’ Ofsted rating in 2019, which is set to be achieved by a staff restructure and a review of looked after children’s placements.

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The borough’s adult services are also getting a trim, with £319,000 of savings planned – to be achieved from tackling adult smoking rates, obesity rates and making learning disability supported living accommodation contracts more efficient.

A further £2.375m of savings is coming from the council’s ‘Places’ department, which includes everything from waste disposal, parking charges and electric vehicles – which will come from energy savings, improved recycling and increasing the cost of a sports ground safety certificate.

As part of the proposals, the council also approved a £50.52m increase in its prudential borrowing to support its overall budget – as well as using up to £11m from its savings accounts; otherwise known as reserves.

Councillor Tom Ross, the council’s executive member for finance, said: “It’s never easy to put together a council budget where we know that local demand is greater than the resources that are available, but this year has proved particularly difficult.

“Not only have we had a great amount of uncertainty including the continuing impact of the pandemic, and the impact of Brexit on our businesses and communities, but we have also been impacted by the rising costs on services caused by the recent increases in inflation.”

Here’s a breakdown of where the council plans to spend its funds this year:

• Investment in school infrastructure – £19.77m
• Major highways and other key infrastructure improvements – £12.60m
• Improvements and provision of cycling and walking routes – £3.61m
• Leisure Strategy and Sports Facility Provision – £8.12m
• Targeted support to some of our most vulnerable residents – £5.56m
• Investment to open up Trafford Waters, Trafford Park for residential development – £4.00m
• Improvements to green spaces and Biodiversity – £0.84m
• Public realm works in our town centres – £1.54m
• Community Safety improvements – £0.35m
• Installation of Cleaner Resomation Cremators – £1.4m
• Town centre and business loans – £0.55m
• Investments in Systems and Assets to improve the way we work – £2.54m
• Future High Street Fund – £13.38m (this is second year phasing. Part of total
  allocation of £17.6m)
• Maintenance and improvements to public buildings – £0.67m
• Investment in a number of other small schemes – £3.65m

Coun Ross added: “At the start of the Covid-19 crisis, the government promised to do ‘whatever it takes’ to ensure that councils and our communities were supported through the crisis. However, it is clear this has not been the case with a continuing impact on demand for services and on our income streams outstripping the levels of support received.

“Despite some very welcome one-off grants, we still had to take the unprecedented step of increasing expenditure controls in the current financial year, as the council suffered major losses of income and significant additional costs. The impact of Covid-19 will cast a shadow over budgets in Trafford for several years.

“We face difficult choices, and we must decide how we best cut our cloth in these trying times. But, as ever, our commitment to maintaining Trafford as a place where residents, communities and business prosper remains our overriding vision.”

Trafford council’s executive approved the budget on Wednesday February 16 before it then went to full council for final debate and voting on where it was also approved.

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