Corporate Strategy 2018-2023 and Budget 2018/19 Consultation

We asked

The consultation on the council’s draft Corporate Strategy 2018-2023 and budget savings proposals was open for six weeks from 6 November 2017 until 17 December 2017.

The Corporate Strategy and Budget (CS&B) consultation sought feedback from the public (including organisations which represent non-domestic rate payers) on:

• the scale of Council Tax increase in 2018/19;
• a proposed Social Care Precept of 3% on top of the proposed increase in Council Tax;
• savings and income proposals which would deliver £35m of savings and additional income in 2018/19 with further savings/income in subsequent years to 2022/23;
• the council’s draft Corporate Strategy, with specific questions on proposed key commitments and suggestions for other key commitments which the council could include.

More information about the proposals on which we consulted is described in the Corporate Strategy and Budget Consultation - Information Booklet.

On 6 November, we also started four consultations on proposals for specific savings measures. (These were the proposals presented in the CS&B consultation Information Booklet Appendix Section 1.) Three of these consultations were open for six weeks until 17 December 2017. These are:

Prioritising allowance needs for Special Guardians and families with children who are voluntarily looked after by the local authority by introducing Financial Assessment;

Increase income generation and efficiency across culture services;

Removal of remaining funding supporting neighbourhood action.

The Parks and Green Spaces consultation opened on 6 November and closed on 29 January.

You said

We received nearly 700 responses to the CS&B consultation, the results of which are available in the Corporate Strategy 2018-2023 and Budget consultation report.

The report also includes the results of consultations on the following specific savings proposals:

• Prioritising allowance needs for Special Guardians and families with children who are voluntarily looked after by the local authority by introducing Financial Assessment consultation (appendix A)
• Increase income generation and efficiency across the culture services consultation (appendix B)
• Removal of remaining funding supporting neighbourhood action consultation (appendix C)
• The Parks and Green Spaces consultation closed after publication of the Corporate Strategy 2018-2023 and Budget consultation report and is reported separately.

We did

The consultation feedback was taken into consideration in developing final recommendations for the Corporate Strategy and the council’s budget which were put to Full Council on 20 February 2018. Full Council agreed the council’s budget for 2018/19 and our Corporate Strategy for the next five years. The decisions are summarised below.

Budget for 2018/19

The council’s revenue budget (for our day to day services) has been set at £355.8m, which together with our capital investment programme totals £1.2billion expenditure in the year ahead.

Council Tax will rise by 4.99% and includes a 2% levy for essential Adult Social Care services to prioritise support for vulnerable people.

Our budget for 2018/19 also includes making £34.5m savings. Most of these will be made from internal efficiencies in order to limit the impact on frontline services.

Corporate Strategy

Full Council also approved a refreshed Corporate Strategy 2018-2023 which outlines our key commitments, principles and values founded on a vision to build a city of hope and ambition where everyone can share in its success.

The strategy sets out our main priorities for the next five years against four themes of empowering and caring; fair and inclusive; well-connected and wellbeing. Each of these themes includes four Key Commitments; specific actions which contribute to our aims.

Specific savings measures

The consultation feedback on the three specific savings measures was taken into consideration in developing final recommendations for how to deliver each of the affected services in future. Details are available on the following consultation pages:

• Prioritising allowance needs for Special Guardians and families with children who are voluntarily looked after by the local authority by introducing Financial Assessment;
• Increase income generation and efficiency across culture services;
• Removal of remaining funding supporting neighbourhood action.