Funding for local authorities in England, announced by the Government, will leave Bath & North East Somerset Council worse off than expected by £187,000, say Council leaders.

The Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Michael Gove announced a 6.5 per cent funding increase for Councils following repeated warnings that local authorities across the country are facing severe financial difficulties.

In response, Councillor Mark Elliott, cabinet member for Resources, says the settlement does not provide enough funding to meet the severe cost and demand pressures faced by the authority - and will in fact leave B&NES worse off than expected.

He said: “This settlement has failed to address the serious challenges all Councils are facing as they seek to set balanced budgets for the next year financial year.

“I am bitterly disappointed that the government has not provided urgently-needed substantial new funding for local services in 2024/25 despite the fact that like every other Council we are having to dig deep to meet this challenge. There is no new money in the Secretary of State’s announcement. It is re-announcing money which had already been allocated. In fact, on examining the detail of the figures published on Monday, this settlement has left the Council worse off than we expected by £187,000.

“Despite managing our finances carefully, with no high-risk investments, we have had to consider some really difficult choices in the savings and income package we are currently proposing and consulting on, due to the ‘perfect storm’ councils are facing.

“Added to inadequate government funding over many years we are also facing high inflation and increases in demand for services, particularly in children’s social care. This means some really difficult decisions will have to be made, and this announcement has done nothing to alleviate that.”

The Council needs to find an additional £24.53m next year, primarily to address increased costs and demands, for example, in home to school transport. By law, the Council must set a balanced budget, so to close the funding gap the Council is consulting on a Council Tax rise of 2.99% plus an additional 2% for Adult Social Care (making a total rise of 4.99%), additional income of £6.51m and savings of £10.31m.

The Council is currently consulting on its revenue budget, the ongoing ‘operational’ spend on our day-to-day services. This does not include spending on infrastructure such as transport projects, sometimes called capital schemes. These two budgets are quite separate, and the Council is not allowed to spend money designated for one-off capital spending on providing services which require support year after year. The Council’s proposed capital programme will be included in the budget papers being presented to Cabinet and Council in February.

To view the savings and income proposals and to respond to the consultation, go to the budget consultation pages on the website.

The consultation is open from Friday 15 December and will close at 5pm on 15 January 2024.