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Southampton City Council Press Releases
Southampton City Council announces Budget proposals
28/01/2010
Southampton City Council is planning a 2.5 per cent increase in Council Tax in 2010/2011 – the lowest rise in its history.
The council has forecast that it needs to spend £569 million to deliver 700 services for residents in the 2010/2011 financial year.
That means, after managing to find more than £8million of savings, a Council Tax increase of 2.5 per cent could be on the cards for residents. For a band D property that’s about £3 extra a month.
The council has cut jobs, made huge efficiency savings and cut the cost of bureaucracy to find the savings.
Councillor Jeremy Moulton, Cabinet Member for Resources, said: “This budget is all about concentrating on delivering high quality, good value for money core services.
“I know that the public are finding it tough right now and it is only right that Southampton City Council cuts its cloth accordingly, becoming leaner and meaner than ever before in delivering services to the public. That’s why we are keeping Council Tax as low as possible and taken steps like cutting the cost of car parking in the city centre.
“This year’s budget will focus on bringing jobs and investment to the city, addressing the poor condition of the roads, improving our children’s education, and providing good quality care for our residents.
“We face huge financial pressures this year and due to the recession, we are receiving less income from our services. However, we are determined to keep tax increases to less than inflation and are driving through huge efficiency savings to achieve this.”
In a budget focussed on providing value for money, here’s a run down of what is planned and how it could affect residents:
Reducing car parking fees
To help residents through the recession, the council will freeze parking charges in our car parks next year, providing discounted season tickets to businesses and making a 50 per cent cut to charges in some car parks.
The council has also decided to retain free short term parking in some district centre car parks.
Fixing our roads
Last year than just less than 17 miles of highway were replaced in the city.
The council is spending an extra £500,000 to fix some of the potholes caused by the extreme winter weather.
An extra £800,000 is being spent every year to improve the road network, which means that over the last three years the council has increased the annual amount it spends on highway maintenance by £2.4 million. And the council will continue to increase its highways budget by this sum every year for the next four years.
Getting the city working
The council has successfully secured £1.76 million of additional funding from the Future Jobs Fund. This will help create over 270 new jobs in the city for our young people.
Investing in education
Education is a top priority, with £1million going into supporting the Building Schools for the Future Programme, to re-build or substantially improve five secondary schools within the city.
The council has secured significant capital to improve primary schools and produce an excellent learning environment for the city’s young children.
Keeping people safe
The council is investing in a street lighting Private Finance Initiative (PFI) that will see an additional £26million invested in the city’s lighting over the next 25 years.
You will see street lighting in the city replaced with better and improved lights this year.
Looking after people
An extra £4 million has been added to social care budgets to protect children and vulnerable adults.
The council is also continuing the 10 per cent Council Tax discount for pensioner.
So where are we finding the savings?
To balance the books for next year the council has had to find more than £8 million of savings.
The council is plugging the gap by becoming leaner and meaner than ever before.
Just under £6 million of efficiency savings have been found. The council plans to generate a further £1.2 million from income. Some services, which have the least impact on residents, will be reduced, saving £800,000
Some of savings the council is proposing include:
· Cutting around 120 jobs, some of which are already vacant.
· Reducing the cost of home care and residential care by providing a much more efficient service.
· Reducing the number of council meetings to cut costs and freeze councillors allowances reduce bureaucracy.
· Cutting the number of issues published of the council’s magazine from 10 to 6, and freezing councillors’ allowances.
When will it all be finally decided?
The budget will go before Cabinet on February 1, and those recommendations will then go to full Council on February 17 for a final decision.
