Royal Borough Council Tax Down 1.5%

Borough residents to benefit from further 1.5% CUT in council tax: ‘Meticulous money management’ results in third year decrease. For the third successive year Royal Borough residents are to benefit from a cut in council tax – this time by 1.5%.

The proposal – to be put to the council for approval on Tuesday 28 February – means the borough will remain the area with the lowest council tax in the country outside London, thanks to a total reduction of 6% since 2010 – 4% decrease in 2010/11 and 0.5% in 2011/12.

It also means that the Band D rate will have fallen by a total of £61 over the past three years.

Cllr Richard Kellaway, cabinet member for finance, said: “This is good ‘money in your pocket’ news for residents, particularly for people on low incomes and pensioners who find council tax is their largest bill.

“We live in very difficult ecomomic times and this council is determind to ensure our residents benefit from every penny of help we can deliver. This means meticulous money management across every service – every day – to cut waste and make every penny count.

“At the same time we are determined to protect the vital front-line services that residents depend on and our budget reflects £2m of additional investment in adult services for the most vulnerable members of our community.”

Cllr David Burbage, council leader, said: “Once again we have shown that we are true to our residents by putting them first and delivering low council tax. We have also demonstrated that reducing tax can be done while still providing good quality, value-for-money services. I thank our hard-working staff for providing residents with valued services that often compare very favourably with other authorities.

“Key to service development in the year ahead is involving our community through Big Society projects that will reward residents for volunteering. The soon-to-be-launched and pioneering CareBank pilot will offer incentives to people for supporting some of our most vulnerable residents. We are also listening to local people who, through last year’s borough-wide participatory budget exercise, put road maintainance as their top priority.  The 2012 budget investment reflects their wishes.”

Savings have been identified throughout the council to help reduce the counCil tax burden to residents, including:
•    the Business improvement (service restructure) programme – £1.6m
•    renewed waste contract – £10m (over seven years)
•    sweeping and litter contract – £296,000
•    proposals to reconfigure a number of services, currently the subject of consultation with service users – up to £850,000
•    re-tendered insurance contract – £100,000.

Included in the 2012/13 budget are:
•    £2m additional funding for adult services
•    £1.2m for highway resurfacing
•    £1m for preparatory work for new school provision in east Maidenhead
•    £900,000 for first and middle schools expansion in Windsor
•    £450,000 for a new rugby training pitch at Braywick Park.
•    £400,000 for replacement street lighting
•    £300,000 for Maidenhead environmental improvements
•    £100,000 for the popular participatory budget exercise.

As a result of not increasing council tax, the borough is benefitting from the government’s one-off council tax reward grant of £1.6m. The council will also receive an additional £480,000 from the new homes bonus.

Cllr Burbage said it was with regret that there would be implications for jobs. He explained: “The public sector as a whole is facing really tough challenges and the Royal Borough will have a 4.2% reduction in government grant (from £32.03m to £30.68m) so the need to focus on efficiency and cost reduction is clear. Unfortunately, it is likely we will have up to 60 redundancies across the council but at the same time there will be opportunities for other staff to widen their skills and play a key role in how our council develops in the future.”

If the budget proposals get council go-ahead, the Royal Borough’s new Band D council tax rate for 2012/13 will be £975.52 – a decrease of 1.5% (£14.86) over 2011/12. The borough is already £227 below the 2011/12 average Band D rate for unitary councils in England.

In terms of value for money, according to figures from the Department for Communities and Local Government, the Royal Borough’s spend per head of population in 2011 was £715 – the lowest in the country (next lowest was York on £733) compared to the national average of £955.

Since 2008 residents’ overall satisfaction with how the council runs things has risen from to 63% in 2010 compared to 53% in 2008*.

Budget proposals will be discussed by the various overview and scrutiny panels before going to cabinet on Thursday 9 February. The final decision will be made by full council on Tuesday 28 February.