Conservative-controlled Buckinghamshire Council has said it will increase council tax by 4.99 per cent as it tries to make £115.6 million in savings and income over the next three years.
Council leader Martin Tett said he would ‘rather not’ make the ‘significant’ council tax rise but stressed his authority had ‘no choice’ and that the hike was roughly in line with inflation.
His cabinet approved the draft programme of spending for the next three years during a meeting on Thursday afternoon.
Cllr Tett highlighted areas of spending popular with residents, such as the £120m the council has set aside to patch up potholes and fix the county’s roads in 2025/26.
He told the meeting: “I hope that demonstrates the focus on residents’ priorities but counterbalanced by some tough decisions on income and charges and also cuts. And they will impact on people.”
The 4.99 per cent council tax rise represents an extra £1.77 per week for the average Band D home in the forthcoming financial year from April.
The rise includes raising the base rate of council tax by 2.99 per cent, alongside a 2 per cent rise in the adult social care precept.
The council’s budget, which is nearly 80 per cent funded through council tax, remains under ‘pressure’ from several key services, Cllr Tett warned.
These include looking after vulnerable children and safeguarding those at risk, as well as social care for working-age adults and elderly people.
Other large areas of spending are home to school transport for children with high needs and providing temporary accommodation for homeless people and families.
Cllr Tett said: “It always been very, very difficult to put the budget together. That pressure has remained remorseless over time.”
The leader claimed Bucks was more ‘prudently’ managed than other local authorities and ‘took the tough decisions’ they did not in order to keep Bucks ‘solvent’.
He cited Labour-run Slough, which has declared effective bankruptcy, and the Liberal Democrat-independent Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead council, which is proposing a 25 per cent council tax rise, as examples.
During Thursday’s meeting, the leader also said he ‘regretted’ the removal of contingencies in the budget, which was among the multiple ‘risks’ of the council’s financial plan.
Contingencies are supposed to be used to cover unexpected costs, but the council is now using these to ‘offset pressures elsewhere’, according to the draft budget.
The 147-page document sets out savings of nearly £40 million in children’s services by the council developing 10 of its own children’s homes and recruiting more foster carers to save on placements for looked-after children.
The draft budget also mentions ‘Library Flex’, the council’s plan to save £555,000 a year by 2026/27 through transitioning to a more ‘self-service’ model and making some staff redundant, while increasing overall opening hours.
A risk assessment attached to the budget said it was ‘not possible’ to identify ‘reductions’ – or cuts – to services or other changes as the measures proposed were only a ‘draft budget’.
The council’s finance and resources select committee will scrutinise the draft budget before it is put before full council to vote on in February.
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