A column by Councillor Richard Rout, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance and Environment
The next couple of weeks are an incredibly busy and important time at Suffolk County Council, and will impact everyone in Suffolk.
On 15 February at the full council meeting, councillors will debate our proposals for how we spend the council’s budget from April onwards.
The meeting will determine how much council tax you and I will have to pay, and how much money is spent on the services that many people rely on – particularly to help support those adults and children who need it most.
It’s a process we’re very familiar with, it happens every year. However, this year feels very different. I’ve said on many occasions that this is the most difficult budget the council has had to work on.
We’ve all been feeling the inflationary pressures driven first by Covid and then the war in Ukraine. Whether it’s filling your shopping basket or running your business, many of us are having to make sacrifices and prioritise what we can and can’t spend money on. I know for many it’s also highlighted the importance of having some money put away for a rainy day.
Suffolk County Council is in the same position – although a large organisation, we don’t have an endless supply of money. We are also having to make really difficult decisions about what we can and can’t spend money on, and we really value those ‘rainy day savings’ – the reserves we’ve built up over the years. The council can draw down on these reserves, but they can only be used once.
The need for our key services is increasing at such a rate, that our funding isn’t keeping pace. Over the last year alone, what we need to spend on children’s services has increased by 28% and on adult care by 14%. Without additional funding, this means difficult decisions have to be made, so we can prioritise these services.
We continue to lobby the government for more funding and last week it recognised the pressures that local authorities were under, and announced a further £600m to share across the country’s councils. Of course, any additional funding is good news – and we absolutely welcome it. I have no doubt this wouldn’t have been possible without our efforts to lobby government, alongside Suffolk’s MPs and county councils around the country.
As a result of this, we plan to suggest providing a new £500,000 fund for our arts and heritage organisations around the county.
We’ve always stated our support for the arts in Suffolk, and pledged to take up any opportunity to continue that support. We understand the value of the sector’s work, and how it helps support the council’s ambition of looking after the health and wellbeing of Suffolk’s residents.
We still propose to end the £528,000 core funding to nine organisations at the end of March 2025, at which point the new fund will start. But importantly, this new fund will be open to all arts and heritage organisations, ending the funding disparity that favoured some towns and organisations over others. We’ll work with the sector to ensure this new pot is straightforward to apply for and that the funded projects meets the council’s priorities.
However, I’m afraid this positive result cannot mask the significant financial pressures that the council continues to face. The funding we receive from government still does not solve the situation that many councils around the country, like Suffolk, find themselves in.
Over the next two years, we must put £74 million towards caring for adults and children who need support. We need to make savings of £65 million, which includes £11 million of staff savings. And even after the further funding from the government, we will still need to take many millions from our reserves to help balance our budgets. This is not sustainable and fundamental reform of how children’s services and adult social care is funded is needed to ensure councils like us remain on a secure financial footing.
To support those most in need, we are proposing to ask you to contribute more this year through your council tax. We don’t do this lightly. 77p in every £1 of this will go to supporting those who need it most in Suffolk. If that’s not you, or anyone in your family, there is someone out there who absolutely needs that support. The remaining 23p of every pound that you contribute will go towards everything else that we do, from running the Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service to maintaining our roads and footpaths.
You will be able to follow our Cabinet meeting (30 January) and Full Council meeting (15 February) live on the Suffolk County Council YouTube channel.
