Bournemouth’s Cabinet is being asked to ensure Bournemouth residents’ Council Tax bills are frozen again in 2014/15. Next week’s meeting (19thFebruary) will be asked to agree a 0.4% reduction in Bournemouth Council’s share, meaning no rise at all in local council tax payers’ bills. This is despite precept rises of 1.96% and 1.93% by Dorset Police and Dorset Fire & Rescue respectively. If agreed, this means that Bournemouth residents will have had frozen council tax bills for a full four years, unlike many residents across the county and indeed the rest of the country.
Recognising that minimising the burden of local taxation is important to residents in these difficult economic times, for this year, 2013/14, Bournemouth Council reduced its share of the precept by 0.7% to ensure bills remained frozen. This was despite precept rises of 8.2% and 1.95% by Fire and Police respectively.
This action by the Council makes a total cut in Bournemouth residents’ Council Tax bills of 1.1% over two years.
Cllr John Beesley, Leader of the Council explains:
“We know that households across our town are being squeezed by the rising cost of living and because of that we are committed to ensuring that we keep Bournemouth’s Council Tax as low as possible. I therefore very much hope that Cabinet recommends this budget to Full Council for a final decision on25thFebruary.
“It is unhelpful to local people that Dorset Police and Dorset Fire Authority have chosen to raise their precepts for the next financial year. Despite this, I am pleased that we have been able to plan a budget that means Bournemouth residents see no rise at all in their overall Council Tax bills during 2014/15, as our proposal is to reduce Bournemouth Council’s part of the precept by a further 0.4%.
“We have managed this in spite of yet another reduction in government grant settlement, this time of 10.63% for 2014/15. This gives us almost £7.4million less to spend delivering services to local people. Combined with expected grant reductions for 2015/16, this will mean an overall 47% grant reduction between 2010 and 2015/16 – that’s almost £39million less to spend on local services and far more than the 28% originally stated by Government.
“Since 2007, this Council has adopted a proactive strategy of strong financial management, driving out efficiencies & savings, and delivering service improvements through innovation. We have been successful at this, saving over £37million so far, with a further £34million of savings planned in the coming three years.
“Despite these severely challenging times, our approach and persistence allows us to continue to provide quality services to all residents, and in particular to address the issues that are of greatest importance to those who live in our town – making Bournemouth safer, protecting vulnerable adults & children, improving the amenities of the town, increasing the availability of quality housing that is affordable, and regenerating the borough’s most deprived areas.
“Next year, the amount Bournemouth spends on Adults’ and Children’s social care will rise again, to 64% of the Council’s entire budget. Budgets for children’s social care continue to respond to rising demand, with an additional £8.5million already invested since 2010/11 and a further £2.5million allocated in 2014/15, supporting our adoption, fostering and children’s social care work.
“We have also invested an extra £5.8million in adult social care since 2011/12. Whilst doing this, we have also made sure that, where services have been provided below cost and significantly below the charges made by other councils, people who can afford to pay more have done so. We will continue to press the Government for a national solution to the provision and funding of adult social care. This is all the more urgent in Bournemouth with higher than average numbers of older people, many of whom, in due course, will run out of funds to sustain their own care packages and will look to the local authority for help.
“We are ambitious for our communities and determined to improve the quality of life for all Bournemouth residents. That is why we continue to invest in those areas that matter to our residents – putting a further £1million into Road Rescue in 2014/15, to fix more potholes and improve the town’s roads; allocating over £100,000 to tackle anti-social behaviour in our Safer Communities programme and ploughing a further £410,000 into the recession fund as part of our Boosting Business initiative, to help bolster the local economy and create jobs.
“Further to this, we are supporting the long-term prosperity of the borough, investing £15million on the community finance initiative to help Bournemouth’s first time buyers get a foot on the property ladder and offer small business loans to local firms. And the £25million first phase of our investment partnership with Legal and General will see 100 more affordable homes and a brand new specialist dementia care unit in the town next year.
“Our staff are committed to doing more than ever before with significantly less resources than in the past, and it is a credit to them that we are able to continue serving the people of Bournemouth so well. I would like to thank them for their continued dedication and hard work.”
Listen
