Budget Consultation 2023-24
Consultation has concluded
The county council has been busy delivering on the ambitions I set out this time last year when I wrote to you about the current budget. Since then, we have opened the £35 million High School Leckhampton which is already providing a wonderful, enriching environment for the students learning there.
By the end of this financial year, we will have invested around £34 million into highways resurfacing schemes, repairing potholes and doing other routine maintenance of the county’s roads. We also launched the £550,000 Community Speedwatch Fund and the £1.5 million Levelling Up Fund to help our communities tackle the biggest challenges they are facing.
Looking at the year ahead, our ambition is not wavering. Our spending for 2023/24 will reach £560 million, a rise of almost £40 million on 2022/23 levels. There is also £119 million committed to complete exciting infrastructure projects such as the Gloucester South-West Bypass, Arle Court Transport Hub, the flagship 26-mile cycle spine, and flood alleviation schemes like the Nailsworth, Coleford and Pittville town centres drainage projects.
We also enter the second year of delivery of our four-year £100 million commitment to continuously improve Gloucestershire’s roads. We have a further £44 million commitment in next year’s budget to go on delivering the best possible educational facilities for children and young people in the county.
Our number one priority is always to protect our most vulnerable and that is why we are also committing a further £22 million to make sure we continue to improve children’s services and £21 million to support vulnerable adults and those living with a disability.
All of this ambition, of course, needs to be funded. Like most households, we have challenged ourselves on how we can be more efficient to make the money go further for the year ahead and we have already identified £33 million of savings.
The budget proposes raising £13.4 million to help fund services through a council tax increase of 2.99%. We are also proposing to raise £7.3 million specifically to support our work with the most vulnerable adults in the county through a 2% increase in the adult social care precept. These figures take account of an increase in the number of people in the county eligible to pay.
We know this comes at a time when every household’s purse is being squeezed. It is not a decision we have taken lightly, but to go on delivering for every resident in Gloucestershire, it is a necessary one. It is important that you contact your local district or borough council as soon as possible if you are struggling to pay your council tax. You will find contact details on your bill or on your council’s website.
Despite this, we still expect to have one of the lowest council tax levels of any county council. Based on a band D property, this equates to a £6.04 monthly increase. We want to know what you think about these plans. Please take a few minutes to complete our short survey so that we can listen to your thoughts.
To make sure your views are included as part of the council’s decision making process, please complete the survey no later than 5pm on 5 January 2023.
Mark Hawthorne
Leader of the Council
The survey can also be made available as a hard copy via post, please contact communications@gloucestershire.gov.uk or telephone 01452 - 427554.
