Council Budget and Savings Programme 2017/2018

This consultation has now closed. The consultation report and a link to the Council/committee papers can be found below.

South Gloucestershire Council is consulting on its budget, council tax levels for next year (2017/18) and its overall savings plan. The council asks council tax and business rates payers their views each year before agreeing its budget and council tax.

Please note the survey is now open until 23/1/17 and now has an extra question on the adult social care precept & a possible increase to 3% in 2017/18 and 2018/19.

This is your chance to comment on the council’s priorities, its council tax and proposals to improve services and increase efficiency. We are also seeking your views on the overall quality of services provided, together with any ideas you may have in relation to priority areas for discussion with central government around any future Devolution deal, subject to the 3 West of England Councils agreeing to proceed in November 2016.

To tell us your views on these important issues please complete the online surveyor use the contact details towards the end of this page below.

The Council Budget

Including spending on schools, the Council spends £538m each year, of which central government contributes £93m towards general services and a further £189m specifically towards meeting Schools expenditure.

Further info on the Council’s budget is available here

Council Tax & Adult Social Care Precept

Prior to 2016/17 the council had frozen council tax levels for five consecutive years. However, for 2016/17 the Government ended its council tax freeze grant scheme and also allowed local authorities with Adult Social Care responsibilities to raise an additional 2% council tax precept to support care for older people.

In February of this year the council approved its 2016/17 revenue budget, confirming a council tax increase of 1.99% along with the 2% precept for adult social care. It also approved outline budgets for the following three years (2017/18 to 2019/20) to help it plan for the future. These included planning assumptions for council tax to rise by 1.99% in each of those years as well as adding the 2% adult social care precept each year to cover additional spending on adult social care costs. This will be subject to the House of Commons’ approval of referendum limits for 2017/18.

In 2016/17 these changes meant an increase of approximately £50 per year (or equivalent to a little over £4 per month) for a band D household. These proposals had the highest level of support of the options put forward last year.

The Council Savings Programme

Now in the seventh year of national austerity measures, all local authorities are experiencing unprecedented constraints on spending and must continue to review what they do and how they do it in order to achieve the necessary savings and balance their books.

Despite the council tax increases last year and those proposed for future years, we still anticipate that current annual spending will be more than our income through to 2020/21. This means that further tough decisions will be needed in the coming years.

From 2011-16 the council have realised cumulative savings of £63.6m in annual spending and we have identified a further £14m per annum of future savings to take place by the end of 2019/20. Even with the assumption that the full savings plan is achieved (a further £22m of savings), there is still a predicted budget gap amounting to £13m by 2020/21 meaning we will need to plan for further ongoing savings.

Further information about the Council Savings Programme is available here

Wider Context / Influencing factors

In setting out the budget for 2017/18 and in planning for future years, the council makes projections about future events based on a best assessment of the position at the time. Most notably it will be necessary to review the council’s overall financial position later this year in the light of:

• The Government’s Autumn Statement (23^rd November 2016)
• The provisional Local Government Finance Settlement (this sets out the level of funding the Government gives to each local authority and what they specify certain parts of that money can be spent on) expected in early/mid-December 2016
• Developments in the light of the EU Referendum decision
• The general UK economy
• Progress on Devolution
• Introduction of 100% retained Business Rates system in 2019/20 or 2020/21

Further information about these factors can be found here

Find out more and have your say

We welcome comments on the council's budget and council tax levels between 1st November 2016 and 23rd January 2017.

Please note that the consultation survey period has now been extended to 23/1/17 to enable residents to respond to an extra question on possible increases to the adult social care precept. All surveys and comments received before 24th January 2017 will be reported to councillors when they set the budget on 15^th February 2017.

We are particularly keen to find out if you feel that all relevant areas are being considered and whether you think there are any specific impacts or alternatives that the council should consider. A copy of the initial draft Equality Impact Assessment is available and we would also welcome comments on this.

Further information is available by contacting us using the details listed below or from your local South Gloucestershire library and One Stop Shop.

You can find out more or tell us your views by:

1. Email: consultation@southglos.gov.uk
2. Completing our consultation online survey (also available to download)
3. Write to: FREEPOST Plus RTCT-JXLE-EET, South Gloucestershire Council, Corporate Research & Consultation Team, Budget Consultation 2017/18, Civic Centre, High Street, Kingswood, BRISTOL, BS15 9TR
4. Phone: 01454 868009. If you would like someone to talk to your group or organisation about this consultation, please contact us using the details above to arrange.

This consultation has now closed and our consultation report is now available.

South Gloucestershire Council will use this information to inform its budget setting at a meeting on 15 February, 7pm at Kingswood Civic Centre. The agenda and papers for this meeting can be found here