PR 1883

COUNTY COUNCIL SETS BUDGET TO DRIVE EFFICIENCY AND SUSTAIN PROGRESS

Hampshire residents will see the smallest rise in the County Council's share of the council tax bills in 35 years from April after it set a council tax rise of 3.5 per cent.

The authority's 2005/06 budget "driving efficiency, sustaining progress" was agreed at a meeting of the full council on Wednesday 23 February with County Council Leader Councillor Ken Thornber saying that the budget strategy provided the lowest possible council tax with no cuts in services.

The County Council's budget for 2005/06 is £1,107.9 million which is £49.8 million more than 2004/05 budget. This means that a Band D property will pay £869.40 - an increase of £29 per annum.

Councillor Thornber said: "There are no cuts to services and the lowest possible council tax rise. This is in line with the clearly expressed wishes of all of our consultees about the unsustainable rate of council tax rises in the past.

"Through service cash efficiency savings, resources redeployment (in line with the Government's target for public sector efficiency savings following the Gershon report), one-off grant from Government in 2005/06 to keep council tax rises below 5%, the use of our grant resource equalisation reserve to match grant loss from the formula grant changes made by Government in 2003/2004 and further corporate savings has enabled us to deliver what the people want which is a council tax increase at the level of RPI namely 3.5 per cent. Without this, council tax would have increased by 6.7 per cent.

"Looking forward to next year, and later years, there is still a huge number of potential risks and liabilities and new contingencies we need to set aside. We have a fundamental upheaval in our Social Care and Education services during the year with the implementation of the Children Act. We aim to improve our services still further to get greater integration and better improvements in delivery of the service in the frontline broadly based around schools.

"We certainly cannot plan forward over three years without a much more sustainable and coherent view on grant and council tax rises from Government.

"Hampshire is one of 13 councils in the south east to have increased its provision of home care services for older people...We have also of course continued to put schools at the front of our spending plans even though Government has tried to take more and more control of what we spend on our own school children.

"The council has achieved its challenging targets to stem the decline in highway conditions through putting more investment into highway maintenance. This is despite the damage resulting from severe flooding and droughts in recent years...In July 2004 the council and its partners won the European Award for Road Safety in recognition of its recent successes in reducing serious road casualties.

"On 2 March I will open our first Discovery Centre in Gosport, a major step forward in our mission to make Recreation and Heritage services accessible to the whole community."

Councillor Thornber went on to explain that within the budget there is room for growth. "We have found room to do new things closely linked to our aims in the corporate strategy...We are increasing the LEA budget by £200,000. We are introducing a "grow your own" graduate scheme with a budget of £200,000...We are introducing a programme to work with older people taking forward an innovative approach to preventing ill health with a budget of £100,000...We are also investing in key worker housing with a budget of £200,000. At the County Council meeting, it was agreed that an additional £250,000 funding would be provided to the Youth Service from savings."

"The budget for 2006/07 shows huge attention to value for money and efficiency savings but has not neglected maintaining and improving our services where we can. We have found room to do new things closely linked to our aims and objectives in the corporate strategy. By requiring savings on all but schools' budgets we have been able to meet service pressures, and these have allowed us to stay within the Government capping level of 5 per cent.

"I am proud that my Administration has in just 5 years increased the spend on schools by 42%, on social care by 62% while receiving one of the lowest increases in grants from Government and having lost £43million to Labour's heartlands.

"So, this year we are proposing a 3.5% council tax rise compared with the average county council tax rise of 4.1%, the lowest increase in council tax of all South East County Councils, while receiving the fifth lowest grant from Government and while being rated joint third best County Council in the country.

"This is real value for money and this administration will deliver more."

People on low or fixed incomes finding it difficult to pay their council tax may be eligible for council tax benefit and should contact Hampshire County Council Information Centres as a first step to finding out on 0800 028 0888.

ENDS

For further information please contact: Vanessa Burton on 01962 847367

vanessa.burton@hants.gov.uk

23/02/2005