Bucks Council announces plans to increase household taxes by maximum amount

Bucks Council has revealed it will seek a council tax increase of 4.99 per cent for the next financial year.

This would represent the same amount the authority raised taxes by in the previous three years with the council citing ongoing financial challenges and enforced responsibilities.

Bucks Council revealed the planned hike, which would amount to an extra £1.77 per week for the average Band D home, as it unveiled a financial strategy for the next three years.

Bucks Council’s proposals will be further scrutinised next month, before its official budget is published for the new financial year starting in early April.

Suggestions on how to save money have been released by the council which says it is still facing major financial challenges. Bucks Council says that this current financial year has seen demand rise for four key services: adult social care, children’s social care, transporting higher needs children to and from school and providing temporary accommodation for homeless people and families.

A council spokesperson said: “Cost and demand for these services mean they’re considerably overspent, particularly where ‘high needs’ children’s services are concerned as the cost to the council is higher than the grant provided by government for these services.”

According to Bucks Council data 80 per cent of the authority’s funding comes from council tax and that is why it is seeking a maximum increase.

This is split with two per cent going towards an Adult Social Care precept set by the Government, the other 2.99 per cent will go towards other services.

Bucks Council has outlined £115.6 million worth of savings in its new budget and claims more money has been saved in recent years due to the council becoming a unitary authority. Data provided by Bucks Council suggests that more than £230 million will be saved between 2020 and 2028 as a result of the change.

Key projects the council has committed to investing in over the next financial year include:

-More money going towards its road maintenance and improvement scheme

-£24.8 million to support regeneration

-£10.7 million on climate change and flood management

-£24.8 million to support housing and homelessness

-£188.8 million on schools and related education projects

£30.4 million on maintaining and improving the county’s Household Recycling Centres, waste vehicles, and related projects

Council leader, Councillor Martin Tett, said: “We remain in a period of extreme turbulence with the local government sector as a whole currently on a financially unsustainable footing. We know the new government is proposing sweeping change to how local government functions but the truth remains at the moment that there simply is not enough money in the sector to pay for the services local councils must deliver however local government is organised, and particularly where there are key services that we are legally obliged to provide and upon which central government inspects us.

"We are working incredibly hard to find efficiencies and redesign local services to allow us to produce a balanced budget and still invest in our county and the services we provide to our residents."