Fair funding now - before it's too late

Hello everyone. It’s that time of the year when we set our budget, and I wish I could tell you that there’s nothing to worry about.

The simple truth is – we need an urgent review of government funding before our financial position gets ever more precarious.

This is what 14 years of austerity looks like – a period when we’ve had well over £100 million stripped from our resources - and we simply cannot go on like this.

In the last two years alone, we have had an additional £11 million of cost pressures piled on us.

We all know how much inflation has hammered our wallets. But on top of that, there has been a big rise in the demand for services, particularly in adult social care and for children with special needs. These are crucial services that we must provide, but they are also among the most expensive – social care accounts for two-thirds of the Council Tax.

Sooner or later, we will be reduced to providing only the services that we have to provide by law.

On Wednesday, the full council meets to set the 2024/25 budget. In short, we are proposing to balance the books using £15 million from reserves and £10 million in savings, efficiencies and income generation.

This will ensure our immediate viability, but it is not a long-term solution. Reserves can only be spent once, and therefore work is well under way to identify recurring financial savings over the next few years.

The Government has increased our spending power by 6.7%. At first glance, this looks like good news. However, this is based on the expectation that we increase the Council Tax by the maximum allowed – a rise of 2.99% for general council services, plus a further 2% earmarked for adult social care.

So really, the funding increase is being funded by the local taxpayer. Some 57% of our income now comes from the Council Tax – up from 50% just nine years ago.

Don’t just take our word for it. The Institute of Fiscal Studies says that Bury Council is in the bottom 20% worst-funded councils in terms of money to spend per resident.

This is why we launched our Let’s Fix It Together petition calling for a better deal, which 1,300 local residents have already signed.

If you haven’t already, please join the campaign. To sign the Let’s Fix It Together petition, go to https://www.bury.gov.uk/council-and-democracy/budget-campaign-petition