£5 a year council tax rise approved by Chichester councillors
The council's also dipping £2 million into its reserves following the pandemic
Last updated 5th Mar 2021
Chichester District Council has agreed to raise Band D council tax by £5 and take £2.1m from reserves to balance its 2021/22 budget.
During a meeting of the full council on Tuesday (March 2), Peter Wilding, cabinet member for finance, said the need to use reserves ‘for the first time in many years’ was a direct result of the pandemic.
He added that, with managers unable to estimate their incomes for the next year with any accuracy, this budget was ‘less certain than any other that has preceded it’.
A report to the meeting showed that much of the problem lay with the loss of income from car parking and the leisure management contract, which fell short by £1.22m and £632,000 respectively.
The money to plug the gap in the budget will come from the £8m taken from reserves in July to cover the cost of the pandemic.
Mr Wilding told the meeting that current projections showed that £2.7m would be spent before April.
He felt that this, on top of the £2.1m used to balance the budget, would leave enough to meet any shortfall for five years without having to draw on more reserves.
The £5 council tax rise – the maximum allowed – will take the district’s proportion of the Band D bill from £165.81 to £170.81 for the year.
This, on top of the Police & Crime Commisioner’s £15 increase and West Sussex County Council’s rise of £71.82, means the average Band D bill will rise by more than £91 in April.
Speaking after the meeting, Mr Wilding said the coronavirus pandemic had 'significantly affected' the budget, and that the rise was necessary to continue providing vital public services in the district.
"We have been working hard to adapt and review what we are doing in order to support our communities, so that we could minimise the financial impact on our residents.
“Over the past year we have delivered significant amounts of support to people across the district. This has included supporting vulnerable residents and keeping them safe to issuing grants to businesses and working to reduce homelessness.
“We are keeping council tax as low as we can, and we still remain one of the lowest charging authorities in the country, but we need to ensure that vital services continue and that we are providing support to those people in our communities who need it the most.
“We are also maintaining our council tax support scheme so that those who are most vulnerable in our communities will not receive any increase.”