Milton Keynes City Council has published its draft budget for next year which contains a number of difficult decisions over council tax, cuts and savings in order to find the £20m it needs to balance the books but continues to provide some of the best value for money services in the country.
The council is having to make tough decisions due to the huge increase in the cost of providing services to vulnerable children and adults.
The number of children being taken into care or needing support from the council has added over £13m to the financial pressures being faced by the council.
This includes:
£8m extra funding for placements for children in care.
£3m to fund additional foster placements.
£1m to support children with disabilities.
The council is also having to find around £6m extra to support vulnerable adults, including:
£1.5m to support the social care needs of older people.
£1.5m to support people with physical disabilities.
£1m to provide additional support for people with mental health conditions.
£1m to support adults with autism.
Last month, the new Labour government announced additional funding for local councils, including £600m nationally to help fund social care and extra financial support for children’s services and SEND needs. However, after almost 15 years of brutal Conservative austerity, which has seen council spending power drop by almost 50%.
The pressures facing councils nationally means that outside Milton Keynes, many councils are having to use reserves to balance their budgets, ask the government for additional support or are facing bankruptcy.
The Labour administration have now published their financial plans for next year that propose:
A stable financial position that doesn’t rely on reserves.
Support for local people impacted by the cost-of-living crisis, including help for pensioners most impacted by the loss of Winter Fuel Allowance.
Continuing a weekly black bin collection and maintaining a free weekly garden waste collection for residents.
Funding to improve roads, fix potholes and support public transport.
Support for homeless people.
No cuts to libraries.
However, to balance the books the council is also proposing:
A 3% increase in council tax and a 2% increase in the social care precept, meaning a total 5% council tax increase.
Introducing charges for optional additional green waste collections after the first free collection.
Stopping some in-house charged social care services which are available from other providers.
Reducing the number of people the council employs.
Cllr Peter Marland, Leader of Milton Keynes City Council said:
“After almost a decade and a half of brutal Tory austerity that cut council funding in half while demand for services increased, councils up and down the country are still facing the consequences.
“While the new Labour government has provided more funding, the scale of increased demand for services the council needs to provide to keep children safe from harm and for adult social care means Milton Keynes City Council still has difficult choices to make.”
Cllr Lauren Townsend, Cabinet Member for Resources said:
“Across the country, hundreds of councils are cutting services and many councils have reached the end of the road and are effectively bankrupt. Here in Milton Keynes, despite hard choices, we still do many things that other places have cut, and we propose keeping them.
“Our draft budget maintains weekly bin collections and a free garden waste collection for residents. We are proposing to continue to support people during the cost-of-living crisis. We want to carry on fixing potholes, invest in our highways and support public transport, and we still haven’t closed a single library while other places have seen them shuttered.
“We can do these things because we have a well-run, financially stable Labour council. It means tough choices, but the result is that the people of Milton Keynes still benefit from services that in other places simply no longer exist.”
Cllr Peter Marland concluded:
“We know that increasing council tax is a difficult choice as many families face a squeeze on their income. We are also making other tough calls such as is bringing in a charge if people want more than one green bin and reducing the number of people the council employs.
“While the vast majority council tax income the council collects is now spent on adult social care or children’s services, our draft budget seeks to balance funding those services our vulnerable local residents need while not making the deep cuts to services like weekly bin collections, closing libraries, financial support during the cost-of-living crisis or fixing potholes that have happened almost everywhere else.
“We are proposing a robust budget that meets our statutory obligations while still aiming to provide some of the best value for money services provided by any council in the country.”
Opmerkingen