Brighton & Hove City Council leader Jason Kitcat on the budget

After three months of consultation, we’re launching our proposals for the council budget for the coming financial year. They aim to shield those most in need from the council’s £17m funding shortfall as a result of the Coalition Government’s cuts to public funding, alongside pressures from the growing demand for services.
The budget also seeks to protect jobs, the quality of services and the city a healthier place to live.

Among the proposals are extra funds earmarked to help families struggling with government cuts to council tax benefit, housing benefit, and wider welfare reform changes, all of which will have seen approximately £2.6m taken from local residents’ pockets by April 2013 – and future cuts beyond that.

We’re also proposing to put nearly £1m extra funding into preventing homelessness and helping those who find themselves on the streets.

Projects to help save money in the longer term will continue. These include including plans to reduce the number of buildings we occupy, and schemes to cut energy bills.

As with last year, all branch libraries and children’s centres will stay open, no changes will be
made to the threshold at which vulnerable people get social care, and support for carers is protected.

Through much hard work, we’ve made sure that the vast majority of our proposals have little or no impact on the service many residents use and rely on. A proposed below inflation 1.96 per cent increase in council tax will protect vital services as we prepare for years more funding cuts by government.

Despite our city having been hit with the worst cuts per head across the region, we believe we’ve proposed the best deal possible to protect essential services for everyone in the city. We very much hope our plans are approved by the council later this month.