Proposals to spend over £130m of the overall 2023/24 council budget of £166.4m on services to support vulnerable children and adults in Swindon will be discussed by councillors next week.
Swindon Borough Council’s Cabinet will meet on February 1st and be asked to approve the proposed budget plans.
The remaining 20 per cent of the budget would be spent on day-to-day services to benefit all residents, such as waste and recycling services, including extending the food waste service to all one hundred thousand households in the Borough later this year.
Funding has also been allocated for maintaining Swindon’s roads, education services, cultural facilities, libraries and country parks.
To ensure there is enough money in the pot the council are also proposing an increase in council tax of 4.99%, 2% of which will be used towards the support for vulnerable children and adults and the remaining to go to wards the day-to-day services.
With a deficit of £40m the rise in council tax will not fully cover the needs of the council so other cost savings are needed which include approximately 100 full-time equivalent posts being removed from the organisation’s structure, of which half are currently vacant however it would mean around 50 staff being made redundant.
Councillor Keith Williams, Swindon Borough Council’s Cabinet Member for Climate Change, Finance and Commercialisation, said: “This is without doubt the most challenging financial position we have faced as a council due to the record levels of inflation and the impact that has on all the services we deliver to local residents.
“We are all experiencing the impact inflation is having on our own personal budgets, especially for essential utilities like gas and electricity. For the Council, these inflationary pressures have added a staggering £22m to our costs for next year. This is unprecedented and equates to 13 per cent of the Council’s entire net budget for the next 12 months.
“The bulk of our budget is spent on looking after and protecting the most vulnerable people in our communities, while also maintaining the services that local residents and businesses expect from the Council.
“However, these rises in our costs mean we have to take some difficult decisions when prioritising essential services in order to deliver a balanced budget, as we are required to by law. This will mean increasing council tax and also making some changes to the way we do things.
“We have to find savings of £26m next year, which is the single biggest saving we’ve ever had to make in one financial year and Cabinet colleagues will be asked to make some tough choices next week to help us reach that target.”
