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Cambridgeshire County Council proposes maximum tax rise amid growing costs and rising demand




The average Band D household in Cambridgeshire could pay an extra £73 to the county council this year.

Cambridgeshire County Council leader Cllr Lucy Nethsingha Picture: Keith Heppell
Cambridgeshire County Council leader Cllr Lucy Nethsingha Picture: Keith Heppell

Cambridgeshire County Council, which is run by a rainbow alliance of Liberal Democrats, Labour and Independents, is proposing to increase its share of council tax bill by 4.99 per cent, which includes a two per cent precept for adult social care.

It is the maximum amount allowed by government before a local referendum is triggered.

Lib Dem council leader Cllr Lucy Nethsingha said: “I do understand just how much family budgets are under pressure, particularly some of the least well off families, but I am well aware that some of the most vulnerable families are families that we support with our services.

“We need to be able to fund services or we will be putting the most vulnerable people at more risk.”

The county council, which is responsible for education, highways and social care, is facing a £21.4m budget gap next year.

Local authorities are required to set balanced budgets each year and by increasing council tax, the county will raise £17.8million.

Cllr Nethsingha said the balance the joint administration had “reluctantly come to” was to raise council tax in order to ensure the authority can “support the most vulnerable”.

The budget will be presented to members of the county council’s strategy and resources committee on Thursday (January 26) before going to the full council on February 7 for final approval.

A report to the meeting next week sets out plans to spend more than £15m of one-off funds from reserves next year.

Cambridgeshire County Council tax proposals for 2023/24 (61936927)
Cambridgeshire County Council tax proposals for 2023/24 (61936927)

This includes £1m to continue free school meal vouchers for eligible children, £1m for highways schemes including rural roads drainage, £1m to invest in flood mitigation, more than £1.3m for libraries and £380,000 for community services.

The report explains that the ‘core spending power’ of the county council will be increased by 9.5 per next year, compared to an average across all councils of 9.2 per cent.

However, half relates to additional council tax raising powers and a further third relates to compensation for business rates not increasing in line with inflation.

The report states: “Genuine new government support, therefore, will increase our budget by much less than the headline figure (and less than inflation).”

The report highlights increases the council faces in demand-led services, such as spending £12m more each year for high needs education than it receives in funding.

It also highlights how the growing demand faced by councils like Cambridgeshire responsible for social care services, is exacerbated by high levels of vacancies across all areas of social work, reablement, residential and care homes.

The impact of climate change and of extreme weather events is also causing growing problems on Cambridgeshire’s roads – particularly in the Fens where soil affected roads are deteriorating even faster due to increasing extreme weather events.

Cllr Richard Howitt, the chair of the adults and health committee at the county council, said he believed the joint administration had been “prudential” around the plans to use reserves.

He said: “What we are spending the £15million of reserves on, we believe they are things the public would give very strong support for.

“Extending the free school meals vouchers we give to poor families so they can survive through the school holidays is an important achievement of this administration.

“Putting more money into environmental issues, particularly flood relief, and also draining rural roads in Fenland where it has become a huge problem. We have shown that we are not going to cut that area because the extreme weather has really impacted upon that.

Cambridgeshire County Council leader Cllr Lucy Nethsingha, Cllr Elisa Meschini, deputy leader, and Cllr Tom Sanderson, leader of the Independent group Picture: Keith Heppell
Cambridgeshire County Council leader Cllr Lucy Nethsingha, Cllr Elisa Meschini, deputy leader, and Cllr Tom Sanderson, leader of the Independent group Picture: Keith Heppell

“Putting more money into libraries to make them more inclusive and welcoming spaces, warm spaces at a time of freezing temperatures. They are important community resources around the county.”

Chief executive Stephen Moir said Cambridgeshire was under-funded.

He said government delays to holding a fair funding review meant the county would continue to see its population increase and more pressure and demand put on the authority’s budget, as the county was “not receiving funding Cambridgeshire communities need”.

Mr Moir said the authority was proposing to do what the government had encouraged in terms of raising council tax and using reserves.

He added that the county council had a “strong track record of good financial management”, but said it was the fifth year in a row the authority had been given a one-year settlement from the government.

He said a longer term funding settlement was needed as not knowing caused an “additional level of uncertainty”.

Deputy council leader Cllr Elisa Meschini added: “We understand more people than ever are experiencing economic hardship, and when people’s own finances are squeezed, they rely more and more on council services.

“Nothing illustrates that more than the 24 per cent increase in the number of children becoming eligible for free school meals in the past 16 months. Providing those services, however, is becoming harder and harder.

“Inflation, rising interest rates, the costs of energy, and recent changes made at very short notice to the regulations around waste handling have been adding huge pressure to our already overstretched capacity to discharge our duties.

“We are using prudently held one off reserves in-year to meet some of the urgent need that is facing us – as that is what the money was set aside to do –but we have to remember this one is one off, and doesn’t solve our chronic underfunding problem long term.”

Cllr Tom Sanderson, Independent group leader, and chair of the communities, social mobility, and inclusion committee, said: “We are prioritising some of our one-off funds directly into supporting the most vulnerable, such as the extension of the school meal vouchers, investments in community services and our libraries – as well as signposting people in most need to the council tax discount schemes run by our district and city council partners.”

In addition to the county council precept, the final council bill includes payments to your city or district councils, plus town or parish councils where relevant, along with police and fire authority charges, and many of these charges are expected to rise too, although East Cambridgeshire District Council is planning to freeze its council tax for the tenth year in a row.

Last year, the total band D charge in Cambridge was £2,014.66.



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