Council budget prioritises jobs, homes and clean, safe streets

Vital local services are being protected as the Government cuts more than £18 million of funding for Plymouth residents next year.

The Cabinet has agreed to recommend a draft budget for 2015/16 that invests £192.5m in delivering more than 350 day to day local services and protecting and expanding work to provide jobs, create affordable homes and keep the city’s streets clean and safe.

The budget protects vital services despite the Government cutting the Council’s funding by a total of £30m over the last three years and making further funding cuts totalling £27 million over the next few years.

A report to Cabinet said central Government had reduced funding for council services in Plymouth for next year alone by £18.4m – a drop of more than 30 per cent.

The budget protects vital services such as maintaining weekly bin collections, cleaning streets, maintaining parks, keeping libraries open and looking after vulnerable residents.

The proposed budget will also invest £237.6m capital funding in creating jobs and improving Plymouth’s streets, schools and environment over the next four years.

The budget will enable the Council to:

• Support the creation of hundreds of new jobs through a wide range of initiatives such as the Plan for Jobs; delivering the Peninsula City Deal and redeveloping South Yard; a new business centre for the Community Economic Development Trust in Whitleigh; the new Ocean Studios; Phase 5 of the Plymouth Science Park and the expansion of Langage Business Park.
• Invest in skills and opportunities for young people such as through the Building Skills programme.
• Support firms that invest profits in their communities through the Social Enterprise Fund.
• Deliver a world class heritage and cultural centre using funding secured from the Heritage Lottery Fund.
• Deliver a plan to improve Plymouth’s private rented housing.
• Help create more than 200 affordable homes over the next year.
• Provide advice and support to thousands of people struggling to cope with rising prices, government cuts and welfare reform.
• Work with the police and other partners to bring down crime and support victims.
• Expand three schools, re-building one and opening a new one.
• Increase the number of children able to eat fresh, nutritional meals at a good price.
• Support 400 vulnerable children in care.
• Join up health and social care services to help transform the lives of thousands of people while supporting the NHS in meeting the challenges they face.
• Open another 40 extra care beds so even more older people can be supported in the community rather than entering residential care.
• Invest an extra £4.8m on its roads and pavements on top of the £5m revenue budget for street lighting, pothole repairs, bridges and defects on the roads and pavements. Invest in improving rubbish and recycling collection and street cleaning.
• Make further repairs to costal footpaths following damage in the winter storms last year Invest £200,000 in refurbishing more public toilets.

Councillor Mark Lowry, Cabinet member for Finance, said: “The enormous scale of the Government cuts to funding for local services in Plymouth has only made us more committed to doing everything we can to protect local services where possible. It has been incredibly hard to balance a budget when faced with cuts this large. We have been able to achieve this through our ambitious programme to transform the way we deliver council services.

“After a lot of hard work we are now able to propose a balanced budget that protects vital services for Plymouth residents – a job made even harder by the Government only confirming funding levels a few weeks ago.

“I am pleased that we are continuing to prioritise resources on providing more jobs and homes for Plymouth families and ensuring our streets are cleaner and safer.

“As we announced last year as part of our three year budget plan, we are proposing reluctantly to increase council tax by just under two per cent, which will mean most residents will pay no more than 36p per week more for council services. No increase is welcome and we don’t make this decision lightly but Plymouth residents will still continue to pay the lowest average council tax in the region.”

The 2015/16 budget will now be considered by the Full Council on 23 February.