County council budget is out for consultation
PRESSURE is building as demand for support and infrastructure soars, new budget proposals by Leicestershire County Council show.
A 20 per cent surge in demand for children’s social care and special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), combined with inflation, is driving up the county council’s costs by £117m.
The latest four-year plan sets out the need for £80m of savings, but also £16m of investment in tackling climate change, an extra £34m to support vulnerable people and £7m next year to top up road maintenance budgets.
The £80m breaks down as £24m of detailed savings and a plan to reduce SEND costs by £17m, leaving a £39m gap.
A 3.99 per cent Council Tax increase equates to just over £1 a week and would reduce the impact on services by generating £12m next year to support vulnerable people.
Coun Byron Rhodes, deputy council leader, said: “Our budget foundations remain strong. Driving down costs and delivering good services is generating bang for our buck, underlined by being rated the most productive council in the country for three years running.
“Our financial position doesn’t make it easy but we remain focused on delivering the services our residents need. Over the summer, we asked for people’s views on our priorities.
We’ve listened and plan to plough millions of pounds into children’s and adults’ services, boosting roads by fixing pot holes, improving drains and tidying verges and combating climate change. We’re a green council and that’s why we are installing electric charging points, developing carbon-neutral buildings and planning a trailblazing, green housing development and an incomegenerating solar farm.”
A range of one-off investments to support infrastructure for new homes features in the £600m capital programme. This includes creating 6,400 more school places - 5,900 mainstream and 500 SEND - expanding adult social care accommodation and rolling out high-speed broadband.
Coun Rhodes added: “Rapidly spiralling demand is ramping up pressure on both our service and capital budgets. We can balance the books for now but despite saving £210m since 2010, a significant gap is looming. Leicestershire is growing, requiring the biggest investment in the county’s infrastructure for a generation. That’s why prioritising resources and improving how we work remain essential.
“A one-off cash injection of Government funding in the autumn was welcome but we mustn’t lose sight of the bigger picture. And future certainty, a cast iron commitment to fair funding and a longer-term solution for local government finance, for social care in particular, are essential.”
• Demand for SEND support is forecast to rise by 20 per cent over the next four years – a oneoff investment of £30m is creating almost 700 extra places and aims to bring down costs
• Investment in adult social
care accommodation would allow 60 people a year to move into housing that helps them to live more independently
• The combination of people
living longer, households becoming smaller and a rising birth rate mean that Leicestershire’s population is growing – and set to rise by 107,000 between 2016 and 2041
A consultation is set to run from now until January 19.
The final budget proposals will be agreed by the county council at its meeting on February 19.