Budget Update 2007
Released: 7 December 2007
The Government have announced details of the 2008/09 proposed grant settlement for local authorities and the indicative grant settlements for the following two financial years.
This Authority’s grant settlements, on a like-for-like basis, should see cash increases of 3.0% for 2008/09, 2.3% for 2009/10 and 1.9% for 2010/11. These increases are better than anticipated in March, entirely due to the Government’s decision to end social care damping.
The Authority, with support from our local MPs, has been part of a much wider lobbying campaign to correct this damping mechanism. As a result, Wolverhampton is no longer receiving the minimum possible grant increases – which have been set at 2% in 2008/09, 1.75% in 2009/10 and 1.5% in 2010/11.
These percentage uplifts in Government grants still fall short of the minimum increases required to meet pay and price increases. The proposed grant settlements offer no scope for further new service developments. Further improvements will need to be funded either by continuing to make new efficiency savings or by re-assessing existing service priorities.
The new Working Neighbourhoods Fund has replaced the Neighbourhood Renewal Fund which has been used to support many local based initiatives. It appears that the new Fund has been maintained at the previous funding level (£6.1 million for 2008/09).
A number of specific grants being drawn together into the Area Based Grant are currently unknown and details are awaited. This grant is important for the delivery of the priorities agreed by the Local Strategic Partnership.
We will be consulting on our budget proposals for next year. Over coming months when full details of the Government’s final grant settlement and our own detailed estimates of the costs for providing local services are available.
As usual, the Services and Budget Consultation Report will be available in early January and feedback from this will assist in determining the level of next year’s budget and Council Tax. We anticipate final decisions on the budget for 2008/09 being taken at a special Council meeting on 5 March 2008.
Councillor Roger Lawrence
Leader of the Council
Issued by the press office.