Draft budget for Rutland could see council tax rise by 2.99% this year
Rutland County Council has launched a consultation on its latest draft budget.
A draft budget for Rutland could see council tax rise by 2.99% this year.
It's the smallest increase in the last five years, with the Council proposing to use £2.6m of reserves to balance the budget.
A consultation has been launched, the feedback will be reported to Cabinet and Council in February, to consider the comments before approving a final budget
Less funding from central government means that Rutland County Council must rely on Council Tax to fund local services or cut them. Meaning, just over 80% of the Council’s funding now comes from Council Tax contributions, compared to a national average of 61% for other councils.
Councillor Gordon Brown, Cabinet Member for Finance at Rutland County Council, said:
“Rutland County Council is in an extremely difficult position.
"Government talk of increased spending power does not mean more money for councils. It simply means that councils have been given the ability to increase Council Tax even further, to make up for a lack of central government funding.
"This effectively passes the rising cost of local services on to residents. We feel this is unfair on people in Rutland, particularly when Council Tax is already high here because of the government’s historic approach to funding local councils.
"With the support of our MP, we are lobbying Government to increase the amount of Local Government Settlement given to Rutland, as well as the overall level of funding provided to council’s, nationally.”
The draft budget for 2021/22 shows that the Council needs to spend £41.5million over the next 12 months to keep local services for residents. This includes everything from road maintenance and bin collections to library services, fostering and adoption, bus travel, school transport and care for older people.
Key spending:
£13.8million for adult social care services that help people with needs arising from illness, disability, old age or hardship. Services include day care, community care, residential care and adult protection
£6.3million for Social Care services that support and protect vulnerable children, young people, their families and young carers. This includes fostering, adoption, residential care and support for children with disabilities
£3.2million to pay for the collection of all household and commercial waste. This also includes recycling and disposal of waste, as well as the cost of running Rutland’s recycling centres
£1.4million to maintain all roads, car parks, footpaths, bridges and street lighting in the County, together with the cost of winter gritting, traffic management and road safety
£1.09million for public transport, including subsidising local buses and free travel for residents of pensionable age
£2.05million to provide free school transport for children, as well as travel assistance for people with special educational needs and disabilities
£1.8million for public protection and the environment, including street cleaning and grounds maintenance services, along with work linked to trading standards, licensing and crime and disorder