THE ROYAL Borough is planning to hike up council tax to the maximum allowed but is also proposing to spend less on services in 2023/24.

The council is largely responsible for delivering adult social care, children’s services, waste collection, temporary accommodation for the homeless, infrastructure, and a lot more.

In the 2023/24 draft budget, it is proposing to spend about £88.8m on services in total, which is about £1m less compared to last year.

The draft budget states high demand for services, inflation, and skyrocketing interest rates are posing significant cost pressures to the council. The local authority is expecting to pay £6.5m in interest, which is up by £4m from 2022/23, and £4.7m in pension costs, including past service deficits.

The council is proposing a 4.99 per cent rise in council tax after Chancellor Jeremy Hunt raised the maximum permitted without going to a referendum. The council also has to make about £12m in savings for the next financial year, which was originally predicted to be about £7m.

Slough Observer:

At a cabinet meeting on December 1, council leader Andrew Johnson said it is with “regret” to put council tax up during a cost living crisis, but the Royal Borough has produced a “balanced” budget that won’t use the local authority’s reserves, which are used for unforeseen circumstances.

But some of the savings proposed state certain elements of a service or contract will be ‘reviewed,’ meaning the council has not yet established if the saving it thinks it will make will actually be made.

The draft budget is set to go out for public consultation and to be scrutinised by councillors. This means the budget could change by the time it is finalised before February.

READ MORE: Windsor & Maidenhead proposes 4.99% council tax rise

It could also change when the government’s funding settlement to the council is known, which could be around Christmas time.

So, what’s in the budget?

Adult social care and housing

The service that provides care for the elderly and vulnerable residents as well as providing temporary accommodation for the homeless and domestic abuse victims could see its budget set at £40.8m.

This represents a £700,000 funding boost compared to 2022/23. At the same time, the council must find about £4.8m next year to keep the services afloat. On top of that, it is also facing £2.7m in inflation costs.

The directorate is also seeing growth pressures of about £3.8m due to an increase in demand, a reduction in hackney carriage drivers renewing their licence, and people paying for their care remains below budget.

Children’s services

The service that provides care to the Royal Borough’s children and pupils has a budget of £27.2m, which is a £500,000 funding boost.

Last year, the council promised a £3m package for the next three years as part of a £10m investment package. However, growth pressures of £2.9m and an inflation cost of £1.2m have meant the council needs to find a £3.7m saving.

READ MORE: Windsor and Maidenhead council tax could rise by 5%

Some of the cuts include removing non-statutory family hub services, removing family support worker posts, reducing agency staff, and reviewing its special educational needs and disabilities policies.

In terms of growth, the draft budget has blamed unaccompanied asylum-seeking children adding £703,000 pressure to the budget and an increase in demand for the service.

Place

This directorate covers planning, infrastructure, leisure, parking, parks, waste, environment, etc. Last year, place was earmarked a budget of £13.4m whereas the 2023/24 budget could it set as £11.6m, which is down about £1.7m.

This could be down to a £1.7m inflation cost and another £1.7m in growth pressures as well as the removal of a Covid grant worth nearly £1.1m.

To stabilise the place budget, the council would need to find about £2m of savings. Some of the options the council is considering to meet that gap is raising the planning fee that developers pay when submitting an application.

Other measures include reviewing its waste service, parking enforcement provided at two schools, utilising volunteers for park gate closures, and more.

What else?

Elsewhere within the draft budget, the council is proposing a £5.1m budget for resources, which covers operations such as IT, and a £3.6m budget for governance, law, strategy, and public health.