Admin Uncategorized

Council approves ambitious budget for 2025/26

Gloucestershire County Council has approved its ambitious £665 million budget for 2025/26.

At a meeting of council on Wednesday, February 19, the budget was approved by members.

The council is in a good financial position meaning it is able to continue support for existing services as well as make significant investments across the county.

The spending plans for 2025/26 will see spending rise by more than £48.2 million on 2024/25 levels, to over £665 million.

The budget includes significant investment into the council’s priority areas of Highways, Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), Adult Services, Infrastructure, and the Environment.

  • An ongoing £10 million towards delivering on the council’s £100 million four-year commitment to go on improving Gloucestershire roads, with a greater focus in 2025/26 on tackling rural roads.
  • A total £22.2 million towards increasing capacity and improving school buildings and facilities of schools across the county, including £12.8 million towards a new 200 place special school.
  • Young people with SEND and their families will be supported with an extra £2.1 million.
  • £7.5 million towards the future construction of three new adult care homes is being set aside in 2025/26, with further investment planned in future years.
  • Household Waste Recycling Centres in the county will see improvements with a £1.3 million injection.

The budget will raise £20.3 million to help fund services through a council tax increase of 2.99 per cent. It would also see £7.9 million raised specifically to support work with the most vulnerable adults in the county through a further 2 per cent increase in the adult social care precept.

Despite this increase the council still expects to have one of the lowest council tax levels of any county council. Based on a band D property, residents would pay an additional £6.65 each month.

The council continues to challenge itself to work more effectively and as a result has identified £24.5 million in savings, additional income and efficiencies for next year.

A number of amendments to the budget were proposed, with those below being agreed and therefore adopted as part of the council’s spending plans for 2025/26.

The approved one-off budget amendments were as follows:

  • £100,000 to support the expansion of the successful waterscapes natural flood management project, through a grant to Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust (Green)
  • £60,000 as funding to the eight Community Libraries (£7,500 per library) towards repair, maintenance and energy efficiency upgrades in their buildings e.g. LED lighting (Green)
  • £50,000 to increase the council’s budgeted contribution to the Greener Gloucestershire Climate Action Fund, which has just opened to applications from community climate projects that promote behaviour change, doubling the money that can be funded in this round (Green)
  • £50,000 to set up one or two Libraries of Things within Gloucestershire, following the successful example of Charlton Kings Library (Green)
  • £50,000 to extend the term of the popular free bus pass initiative for veterans (Green)
  • £60,000 to engage a part-time coordinator to manage the master composter volunteers and promote community composting initiatives (Green)
  • £50,000 to support a feasibility study considering the implementation of community car clubs in the county, following the successful rollout across Oxfordshire (Green)
  • £500,000 towards a flood alleviation fund (Conservative)
  • £430,000 towards targeted youth services (Conservative)
Admin Uncategorized

Cabinet set to approve ambitious budget for 2025/26

Gloucestershire County Council’s Cabinet is set to approve an ambitious £650 million budget for 2025/26 following a period of public consultation.

The council is in a good financial position meaning it is able to continue support for existing services as well as make significant investments across the county.

The draft budget for the coming financial year will be discussed at a meeting of Cabinet on Wednesday, 29 January.

The proposed spending plans for 2025/26 will see spending rise by more than £32.7 million on 2024/25 levels, to almost £650 million.

The £649.6 million proposed budget includes significant investment into the council’s priority areas of Highways, Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), Adult Services, Infrastructure, and the Environment.

·         A further £10 million is proposed to be put towards delivering on the council’s £100 million four-year commitment to go on improving Gloucestershire roads, with a greater focus in 2025/26 on tackling rural roads.

·         A total of £12.8 million is set to go towards a new £16.5 million 200 place special school.

·         Young people with SEND and their families would be supported with an extra £2.1 million.

·         £7.5 million towards the future construction of three new adult care homes is being set aside, with further investment planned in future years.

·         The council plans to increase capacity and improve school buildings and facilities of other schools across the county with a £12.4 million investment.

·         Household Waste Recycling Centres in the county will see improvements with a £1.3 million injection.

The Cabinet meeting follows a public consultation which ran from 5 December until 10 January.

This consultation saw 65 per cent of respondents either agree or strongly agree with the council’s priorities for the year ahead.

As well as this, 74 per cent of respondents agreed or strongly agreed with the funding the council are proposing to allocate to Adults Services, Public Health and Communities, and to Children and Families, with 75 per cent agreeing with the money the council plans to spend on Community Safety.

In addition, 61 per cent agreed or strongly agreed with the council’s funding proposals for the Economy, Environment and Infrastructure. The responses saw a mix of views on whether there should be more or less investment into the county’s roads and cycling infrastructure.

The budget proposes raising £16.5 million to help fund services through a council tax increase of 2.99 per cent. The proposals would also see £7.8 million raised specifically to support work with the most vulnerable adults in the county through a further 2 per cent increase in the adult social care precept.

Despite this increase the council still expects to have one of the lowest council tax levels of any county council. Based on a band D property, residents would pay an additional £6.65 each month.

The council continues to challenge itself to work more effectively and as a result has identified £24.5 million in savings, additional income and efficiencies for next year.

Cllr Stephen Davies, Leader of Gloucestershire County Council, said: “I would like to thank residents from across our county for giving their views in the recent consultation, which gives valuable insight into where people want money to be spend.

“I am pleased that we are in a position to both support existing services and invest in our priorities.

“Unlike many of our neighbours who are making cuts, Gloucestershire County Council’s budget sees us able to invest in critical areas.

“In our budget proposals, we have tried hard to balance the financial strain we are all already feeling against the need to keep investing in services for the most vulnerable and to support a strong future for the county.”

If the draft budget is approved by Cabinet, it will be put to Full Council at a meeting in February.

Further information on the budget and the outcomes of the consultation can be found here.