Derbyshire County Council has set its budget for the year ahead and agreed a council tax rise of 3.75% - one of the lowest increases in the country.
At its meeting of Full Council on Wednesday (15 February) the authority set its net budget for 2023-24 at £678.2m and agreed the council tax rise which is below the maximum 5% limit set by government and predicted to be among the lowest rises in the country.
Council leader Councillor Barry Lewis and deputy leader Councillor Simon Spencer reassured residents that despite significant budget and inflationary pressures, all efforts were being made to protect vital services to support older and vulnerable people and children, and in setting the council tax rise, not putting unnecessary stress on already stretched household budgets had been a priority during decision-making.
At the Full Council meeting it was agreed that the 3.75% council tax rise would be made up of a 1.25% Adult Social Care precept (the maximum allowed by government is 2%), and a further 2.5% for general council expenditure (the maximum limit being 3%).
The rise will see an extra 80p per week (£41.55 per year) for an average band B household and for a band D household the rise will be £1.03 per week (£53.42 per year).
As well as the council’s current financial position, the agreed Revenue Budget Report also details the council’s savings target, which is £16.2m for the coming year and over the course of the Five-Year Financial Plan up to 2027-28 is estimated at £46.4m.
Councillor Barry Lewis said: “Derbyshire County Council prides itself on being a well-run, efficient and enterprising council, but these are extremely challenging times and a lot of hard work and discussion has gone into setting the budget for the year ahead and ensuring it strikes the right balance.
“We believe the budget and council tax we have agreed will help us to protect vital services for older and vulnerable people and children, while being fair to our residents who are trying to manage stretched household budgets.
“We work hard to balance the books all year round but this year there are many external factors beyond our control which we have had to take into consideration, including inflation, rising fuel and energy costs.
“While we have welcomed additional funding from government for social care which will help significantly, due to rising demands for these services it is never enough, and we continue to lobby for further funding in this area.”
Councillor Lewis added: “This year we will be using 1.25% of the council tax to fund our adult social care home care service and our home care workers. This is part of our effort to retain the valuable staff we have doing this work who are getting people out of hospital and into further care or back home, and also to help us to recruit new staff to join these teams.”
Councillor Simon Spencer said: “We have had no option but to increase council tax to ensure we can continue to provide the services we do, but we were determined not to pass the rising costs in their entirety onto our residents and that has been achieved by agreeing one of the lowest rises in the country.
“Unfortunately it is clear that the money we will receive will not meet our full requirements and there may be difficult decisions to be taken in future.
“As an enterprising council we are looking at a number of ways to meet our savings targets without impacting essential services.
“A key part of that is continuing to explore new ways of working, with the way we operate having already undergone significant change post-pandemic. We are looking at how we use our buildings and what we will and won’t need in the future, and this will include disposing of some of our assets as we reshape the organisation. This will not only help us to achieve necessary savings but also greatly reduce our carbon emissions.”