This week The Council have been preparing to set their 2022/23 budget, and with that comes a Council Tax increase.
The Council have suggested the rise in tax comes down to inflation, and the 5% rise in Social care costs in the county, amounting to or nearly £300 million in total.
This year they're proposing a 2% rise in Council Tax to cover the increase in adult social care costs. In addition, they are proposing an inflation increase in general service costs of 1.99%, meaning the general inflation increase, combined with the special increase to cover the increased costs of social care gives an overall proposed rise of 3.99%, or £1.23 per week for the average Band D property.
The budget was set following consultation with residents who told the Council which areas they wanted to see prioritised. It means the budget proposal includes plans to spend money on key projects such as:
- Continuing to spend over £100 million on improvements to roads and pavements
- Tackling the climate crisis including planting more than half a million new trees in Buckinghamshire, one for every resident
- Investing nearly £25 million in waste services, including vehicle upgrades and a new household recycling centre in the north of the county
- Cleaning every one of the 85,000 gullies in the county again this year
- Continued additional funding for litter clearance
- Adding to the funds available for rolling out high-speed broadband into additional areas
- Maintaining the Street Warden scheme in High Wycombe
Martin Tett, Leader of Buckinghamshire Council, said,
“Believe me when I say it is not an easy decision to raise Council Tax, especially when we know our residents are facing rising energy costs. But we face increased costs too for everything we spend money on to provide the essential services our residents depend upon.
Council Tax now makes up 82% of how we fund these services and given costs such as Adult Social Care are going up by as much as 5%, we simply don’t have a choice."
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