Budget Consultation 2025-26

Dear resident,

As the new leader of the county council, I am really pleased to tell you more about our spending plans for the next financial year.

Due to some strong financial management over recent years, I am pleased to say that we remain financially stable and that our spending plans for next year include a net increase of £32.7 million compared to last year. This means that we can continue to be ambitious in our plans for the years ahead, which include significant investment in our priority areas:

Highways

• A further £10 million towards our £100 million 4-year commitment to go on improving Gloucestershire roads, with a greater focus on tackling rural roads

SEND

• £2.1 million extra towards supporting young people with SEND and their families • £12.8 million towards a new 200 place special school

Adult services

• £7.5 million in 2025/26 towards the construction of three new adult care homes, with further investment over the coming years

Infrastructure

• £12.4 million towards increasing capacity and improving school buildings and facilities of other schools across the county

• £45.4 million to continue delivery of the major infrastructure around M5 J10, helping to bring jobs and housing to the area

• Working with bus operators to get electric buses operating across the network

• Increasing the number of on street Electric Vehicle charging point to around 1000

Rural and environment

• £1.3 million to make improvements to our Household Waste Recycling Centres

• Planting our 500,000th tree and continuing to find locations across the county for more

This is all on top of what we will have delivered by the end of the current financial year, which include:

• The resurfacing or surface dressing of up to 176 roads and the filling of tens of thousands of potholes as part of our £100 million investment in Gloucestershire roads

• £11.8 million worth of improvements to school buildings, including a new Alternative Provision School in Gloucester

• An additional £23.3 million of investment into protecting our most vulnerable children

• Additional routes for The Robin, our bookable bus service

• A new transport hub at Arle Court and a 1,000-space park and ride

• Linking Gloucester and Cheltenham with our high-quality cycle spine

The spending plans set out in this booklet and in the fuller budget documents demonstrates that as a financially stable council, whilst not being immune to the pressures faced by other councils, we can take a more positive approach to tackling them. Part of that approach is to continue our commitment to always seek ways to do things better, to make sure we are getting the most out of all available funding. As such we have identified £24.5 million of additional income, savings and efficiencies for 2025/26 that will help us to remain financially stable at the same time as investing in a better future for Gloucestershire. We have a renewed focus on transformation and improvement right across the council and plans in place that will mean we will be able to continue this approach in future years.

When setting the level of funding they will provide to councils, the Government assumes that councils will apply an increase to council tax and to the adult care precept. Therefore, next year we are proposing to increase council tax by 2.99%, raising £16.5 million to help fund vital services and will apply a 2% increase to the adult precept to raise £7.8 million specifically to support our work with the most vulnerable adults in the county.

This will see our proportion of council tax bills increase by £6.65 per month for a band D property. I know everyone’s finances are already stretched but without applying these increases we would not be able to deliver the services many people rely on.

We have tried hard to balance the financial strain we are all already feeling against the need to keep investing in services for the most vulnerable and to support a strong future for the county. We now want to hear what you think, whether you agree with our plans or if there are things you would change.

It’s not to say that we will always be able to make the changes you suggest but I can assure you that your views will help to inform the decisions we take.

Cllr Stephen Davies

Leader of the Council

Take Survey

The survey can also be made available as a hard copy via post, please contact communications@gloucestershire.gov.uk or telephone 01452 - 427554.

The consultation closes on Friday 10 January 2025, at 5pm.

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