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Welcome to a special edition of our weekly newsletter all about our budget for 2024/2025.
In Coventry, we started the process of planning for this year's budget last April. We were already aware that there were serious funding pressures. This included high inflation and social care costs which have been building for years. As a result, we needed to take a long look at our services and have identified places where we have to make cuts.
These have been difficult decisions for our organisation to make and we want to be as open and transparent with you about them as possible. To that end, we've put together this newsletter to explain the situation, detail our savings targets and keep you updated on how we intend to achieve them.
In this newsletter:
As of 20 February, the Council has approved the final revenue and capital budget for 2024/25.
This budget incorporates a Council Tax increase of 2.9 per cent, which is within the Government’s limit of 3 per cent plus a further 2 per cent Adult Social Care (ASC) Precept in line with Government expectations.
The precept is essential to enable councils including Coventry to manage increases in the costs of care.
In total, the rise in Council Tax bills will be the equivalent of around £1.60 a week for a typical Coventry household including the expected rises in the precepts for Police and Fire.
For a long time, we have been open and transparent that Coventry City Council - like many other local authorities of all political colours across the country - are facing severe financial challenges.
Compared to 2010, our net budget is £100m less every year from the Government and we have prudently managed our budget to ensure we meet our legal duty of setting a balanced budget. However, in recent years, the collective result of these severe cuts in funding and rising demand for services such as social care and homelessness has brought this to a head.
The city receives one of the lowest funding per head of the population in the country (Coventry £821, England average £910) as well as one of the lowest in the West Midlands which can be seen in the graph.
A graph comparing the levels in Funding between the West Midlands Councils. Coventry is the lowest funded with Sandwell, Wolverhampton, Birmingham, Walsall, Dudley and Solihull all receiving more. The chart also shows that Coventry is lower than the national average.
Added to this, Coventry has seen an overall increase in demand which far exceeds available funding. The Council now spends 79 per cent of its net budget on social care and housing (£206m) and homelessness, up from 40 per cent in 2010. This means £54m is available from its net budget for other Council services.
The picture shows a pie chart which has three sections. The smallest section says 'All other Council Services -54m'. The middle section says 'Children and Young People- £94m'. The largest section says 'Adult Social Care and Housing - £112m'
We continue to make internal efficiencies, which amount to over £20m of savings for next year. But despite this we have had to make cuts. Without making these cuts, the reality is that we will not be able to set balanced budgets in the future and will eventually run out of reserves to fill the gap
In December we began a consultation on our budget proposals for 2024/2025.
We asked for feedback from local people and had lots of helpful comments. We tried to take on board some of these and as a result, have been able to apply some changes to our plans.
But there are other targets that we have not been able to change.
Thanks to your feedback the Council has now agreed on a list of savings that means it can set a balanced budget for 2024/25. Many of these follow the One Coventry Plan, which uses the strength of all of our partners. Working together as a city is the only way to make our resources go further
Through 2024, the Council will continue to refine and implement a programme of activity designed to review how best to deliver its services.
Whatever the future national changes to local government finance look like in the next parliament, the Council remains committed to maintaining, and where possible strengthening its own financial self-sustainability and the need to support the vibrancy and growth of the city.
We understand that you will have questions about our budget and financial situation.
As a result, we've tried to answer some of the frequently asked questions on our website.
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