Who are we consulting and why?
We are asking for your views about the budget for the next financial year, 2022 to 2023, which we are currently drawing up. By law, we must balance our budget, and so every year we publicly set out our spending plans.
For the current financial year (2021 to 2022), we set a net budget of £130.1m, which included investments to improve people’s lives, such as tackling the Climate and Ecological Emergency, improving local transport and helping the local economy recover.
Residents are now being invited to have their say on our spending plans for the coming year.
What are we consulting on?
Our challenge for the 2022 to 2023 budget
We face a significant budget challenge for 2022 to 23 due to the ongoing impact of the pandemic, an increase in demand for services such as Children’s Social Care, recruitment and supply chain issues, as well as inflationary pressures.
Read our Medium Term Financial Strategy report for further details.
Our plans
We are proposing to set a budget of £134.3m for 2022 to 2023. This will include significant investment in Children’s and Adult Services, increasing staffing levels in education to meet the demand for Children’s Services and funding care placements.
We also plan to allocate additional funding to the Climate Emergency and Neighbourhood Services. This will allow us to expand our recycling teams to cope with the significant increase in kerbside and green waste being recycled by residents, and allow us to improve the pay of drivers to increase retention amid the national HGV driver shortage, reducing the risk of missed collections.
We are also predicting extra income for the coming year, including increases in income from parking charges and the sale of recycled material.
To find out more detail about our budget proposals, view the video of the Budget Forum on our YouTube channel.
You can also find out more about our 2022 to 2023 budget plans by viewing our Budget Engagement PowerPoint presentation.
How to take part
THIS CONSULTATION CLOSED ON 4 JANUARY 2022
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What happens next?
Following the public forum on 14 December, we will draw up detailed budget proposals, setting out our itemised spending plans for the year ahead.
The proposals will be scrutinised and considered by councillors in several panel meetings:
- Policy Development and Scrutiny Panels on 10 and 31 January 2022
- Climate Emergency and Sustainability Policy Development and Scrutiny Panel on 17 January 2022
- Children, Adults, Health and Wellbeing Policy Development and Scrutiny Panel on 19 January 2022
- Cabinet on 10 February 2022
Final decision
Final decisions about the 2022 to 2023 Budget will be made at our Budget and Council Tax meeting on 15 February 2022.
Information about all budget meetings is listed on our calendar web page. Meetings will also be live-streamed on our YouTube channel