Challenging time to try and balance the books

It’s that time of the year again when the budget is set for the next financial year. With the pressure on each person’s finances, it would be nice to say that we are not proposing any increase in Council tax this year. Â

Unfortunately, like everyone else, we are suffering from rising costs, increased energy bills, higher fuel bills for our waste and recycling teams, increased wages etc. With inflation at over 5%, it is a challenge to make the books balance. Â

Next year, North Devon Council is also facing a cut in its income from various government schemes, such as the New Homes Bonus and, as a consequence, it is predicted that we may have a £2,000,000 budget gap in year 23/24. Â

Having said that, we are not massively increasing our ask of tax payers, as our share will increase by just under 10p a week for Band D properties (£5 for the year). Unfortunately, this isn’t the full story, as the County Council, Police and Fire Authorities are also putting up their share of the Council tax. Â

Consequently, we will continue to work with our vulnerable customers to ensure they have the most help and support available to aid them through these challenging months ahead, when they too are facing increased living costs.Â

As a Council, we are increasing most fees and charges by around 2%, which is much lower than the inflation increase. In a few cases, we have increased prices slightly more, such as with garden waste, to ensure the cost of providing that service is almost covered and, at the same time, we are still providing the service at one of the lowest rates in Devon.  Â

At present, the general Council tax payer is subsidising our garden waste collection and that is unfair on those that do not use the service. This includes, for example, those who live in flats or do not have gardens and many of these are among the least able to afford higher bills in our community. Â

We have not proposed charging more for our town centre car parks, although it is several years since they were last increased. Likewise, we haven’t put up the Barnstaple Pannier Market charges. This is because we realise that businesses in the centre of our towns have struggled because of the pandemic and we wish them to bounce back and flourish. Â

Even in these difficult times, we are trying to be far more proactive in delivering projects and programmes to benefit North Devon residents than the Council has been for many years. Â

For example, we are investing in helping to revitalise Barnstaple through the Future High Street project, purchase of Green Lanes shopping centre and the construction of a new Leisure Centre, and in Ilfracombe, we are building the Water Sports Centre. Â

The number of staff employed by the Council has shrunk by nearly 20% since 2010 and the capacity to bid for funding and carry out regeneration projects has become extremely stretched. Â

This budget does mark a change in direction for the Council and a change of mindset, reflecting the suggestions from the Local Government peer review. Although this independent review heaped a great deal of praise on North Devon Council for the positive progress that has been made since the last District elections, it referred to the need to increase our capacity. Â

This is really important for many reasons, including the fact that we need to bid for funding for future projects. Growing the organisation in a strategic and balanced way provides us a chance to maintain and improve current services, meet our corporate priorities, bring more income into the authority to invest in further programmes and also bridge our medium-term budget gap forecasts. Â

We have some exciting projects in the pipeline and we want them to be successful in making a difference, as we are endeavouring to be a progressive, ambitious, and forward-looking Council.Â