Dorset Council has submitted proposals for its 2020-21 budget in a report going to three Scrutiny Committees (People, Place and Resources) on 13 January. These proposals include:
- Increase in funding for adult social care of £11.7m, taking the budget from £111.2m last year to £122.9m to meet the forecast demand for social care for older and disabled people
- Increase in funding for children’s services of £10.3m, taking the budget from £63.7m last year to £74m to meet the forecast demand for support for children with complex needs and those in care.
The 2020-21 budget is set in a context of rapidly rising demand for both adults and children’s care both this year and into the foreseeable future.
This financial year (2019-20) the council is currently forecasting an overspend of £8.2m on directly controlled budgets, and £6.5m on funding for schools and education. This overspend is largely due to unprecedented and growing levels of demand for social care services, which, in turn, is the result of population changes such as more people living longer with chronic and complex conditions, and an increase in diagnosis of children’s special educational needs and disabilities. Dorset Council’s proposed increased budget for 2020-21 aims to address to the predicted growing demand.
Since 2010, central government grants to councils have been cut by nearly 60%. Dorset Council no longer receives any Revenue Support Grant from central government. This loss of funding has placed significant pressure on councils nationally, including Dorset Council, and on their ability to continue providing quality local public services.
In order to help fund the essential budget increases for adult social care and children’s services, Dorset Council proposes an increase in council tax of 3.996% for 2020-21. Of this increase, 2% is the social care precept agreed by Government in the September spending review to help fund growing demand for social care. This would generate £9.6m of additional income.
However, the council tax increase will not fully cover the forecast increased social care costs, so in order to balance the budget Dorset Council will need to continue making substantial reductions in its expenditure without affecting the delivery of frontline services.
Dorset Council has already achieved significant cost reductions over the past year as a result of Local Government Reorganisation. For example:
- A reduction in the number of senior officer roles, and where there is duplication and overlap across support services like finance, HR, IT and others, delivered savings of £7m.
- A reduction in the number of councillors from 204 to 82 delivered £400k in savings.
- Cost reductions have been made on insurance, audit fees and other activities where the council only has to pay for one organisation rather than six. A new single banking provider is anticipated to deliver a saving of £70k a year.
Next year’s proposed budget includes further multi-million pound savings through property rationalisation, reducing travel and transport costs, and a £3m reduction on expenditure through procurement. All savings are reinvested into frontline services.
Cllr Tony Ferrari, Portfolio Holder for Finance, Commercial and Assets, said:
“Over the last year, the creation of the new unitary Dorset Council has enabled us to make significant efficiencies by removing duplication across the former councils. As a result we’ve been able to continue to deliver all services previously provided by the district, borough and county councils despite the growing demand for and cost of adult and children’s social care services. However, we recognise that we need to increase our budget for the coming financial year in order to fund the continuing growth in demand.
“The council must – and will – deliver services sustainably within budget. We are developing innovative solutions to transform how we provide services with the aim of providing better services at a lower cost. However, transformation takes time, and residents of Dorset need services to be delivered in the meantime, so our 2020-21 proposals will enable us to fund additional demand over the coming year.”
Cllr Spencer Flower, Leader of Dorset Council, said:
“We would of course prefer not to raise council tax. However, we are left with no choice due to a steady decline over recent years in the overall funding from central government and the rising cost of adult social care and children’s services. The alternative would be to cut discretionary services such as libraries, highways and parks which neither I nor my colleagues wish to do.
“As an advocate for Dorset, over recent months I have lobbied Government for fairer funding – particularly for Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and social care. As a result, we did secure a much needed additional £10m funding from Government in the autumn spending review. I will continue to make the case for Dorset with Government throughout the coming year.
“We have a statutory obligation to deliver many of our services. Looking after our most vulnerable residents is very important to us. And it is also important that we achieve a balanced budget through efficiency, not cuts.”
The council’s proposed net expenditure budget for 2020-21 is £305m. The diagram below outlines the proposed sources of the council’s funding for next financial year. Following discussion at the Scrutiny Committees on 13 January, budget proposals will then be discussed at the Cabinet meeting on 28 January and at the Full Council meeting on 18 February for final approval. These are all public meetings and members of the public are welcome to attend. Details of meetings are here: www.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk/committees
I hear and understand your explanation of the need to increase council taxes yet again, by the maximum the government will let you get away with.
However, I do not think you understand the impact that these repeated increases are having on council tax payers.
For 2019/20 the total tax bill for our E band house was £3,120. My wife and I are retired and our combined state pension is £14,917 which means that we are paying 20% of our pension in council taxes. At £260 per month this by far our largest bill.
Once again we get hit with council tax rise. It needs to be re-evaluated and made fairer for all otherwise many of us will simply not be able to afford to live. My council tax bill is now higher than my mortgage payment! Maybe you need to spread the payments over 12 months to help.
Hi Caroline,
Last year, members agreed to harmonise council tax across Dorset as part of local government reorganisation. You can read more about that process here: https://www.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk/council-tax/bands-and-charges/your-bill-explained.aspx
I believe it is possible to spread payments over 12 months. If you’re having problems paying your Council Tax, contact us and we’ll do all we can to help.
Thanks
Alex
It is absolutely disgraceful that you are putting the council tax up yet again.
Hi Marjorie and Ken,
Our members do not wish to raise council tax, but it is unfortunately a necessity. Demand for both adults and children’s care has been rising rapidly over recent years. We’ve chosen to protect the most vulnerable in society. This growth is forecast to continue into the foreseeable future. Adult social care is costing us £116m this year [averages out as £2.2m a week] and children’s care costs us £72m [averages out at £1.3m per week].
Over half of our budget is spent on adults and children’s services.
Budget setting for the council is extremely complex with a high number of unknowns that make budgeting for these areas in particular extremely difficult. You can read more about our budget proposals here: https://moderngov.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk/documents/g228/Public%20reports%20pack%2028th-Jan-2020%2010.00%20Dorset%20Council%20-%20Cabinet.pdf?T=10
That’s a large increase. I’d heard that Council Tax was going to be frozen or actually reduced due to the cost savings made by the reduction in council authorities. Will there ever come a point when there is no yearly increase. Is it purely for adult social care? I’m happy to pay for adult social care for my own family.
Hi Adrian,
The council tax rise is 2%, the social care precept is 2%. It’s not purely for adult social care, no, but that is a large chunk of the budget. You can read more about the budget proposed to members for consideration on 28 January: https://moderngov.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk/documents/g228/Public%20reports%20pack%2028th-Jan-2020%2010.00%20Dorset%20Council%20-%20Cabinet.pdf?T=10
Thanks
Alex
The council tax is is way to expensive we have our payments spread over 12 months now instead of 10 to try and make it easier for us, our wages don’t go up by 3.99% !! It’s like a 2nd mortgage and we even have to pay another £55 a year for the garden bin to be emptied which used to be included in the con tax. So really in real terms it’s gone up more!
Disappointed.I thought the mergers was supposed to save mmoney
Hi Rodney
The reorganisation of councils in Dorset has brought six council workforces into one. This piece of work removes duplicate roles and reviews service structures and is forecast to provide an additional £17.2m in this financial year alone. We are working hard on an ambitious internal transformation programme that will continue to deliver service efficiency, not service cuts.
All the savings that have been made since LGR are now being reinvested in to important services that are costing us more every year, due a number of factors. You can read more in the budget papers being presented to Cabinet on 28 January here: https://moderngov.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk/documents/g228/Public%20reports%20pack%2028th-Jan-2020%2010.00%20Dorset%20Council%20-%20Cabinet.pdf?T=10
Thanks
Alex
I find it impossible to use these figures to conduct a reasonable analysis. They seem to have been jumbled together to give the illusion of transparency rather than providing a coherent set of data that can inform.
The 2020/21 budget for adult and child social services together is stated as £196.9m which is 65% of the planned expenditure. There is no explanation of the remaining spend as far as I can see.
The increase in adult and child social care is stated as £22m. The council is claiming staff savings of £10m, £3m in procurement savings, £0.5m savings from reduction in councillor numbers and banking as well as unspecified multi-million pound savings from property rationalisation and reduced travel and transport costs. Increasing council tax by 3.996% should result in additional income of £19.18m according to your figures. I understand that the government is allowing a higher level of retention of business rates. Councillor Flower is claiming £10m in extra income from the government, although it seems likely that this was a one-off for this financial year and not relevant to the topic of the 2020/21 budget. It is not clear how much the revenue support grant has been cut between 2019/20 and 2020/21 so I assume that most of the changes were implemented in prior years. When I look at all of these claims it appears that there should be significantly more additional funds available than the £22m that is being invested in adult and child social services. This means that either other areas are also receiving substantial increases (which seems unlikely), or many of the cost savings are not included in the budgets, or the figures that have been presented are incomplete. A full comparison between 2019/20 and 2020/21 (both income and expenditure) is required.
Hi Chris,
Thank you for your comments. There is quite a lot to review here, so please take a look at the papers that have just been published for cabinet. https://moderngov.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk/documents/g228/Public%20reports%20pack%2028th-Jan-2020%2010.00%20Dorset%20Council%20-%20Cabinet.pdf?T=10
I hope they answer many of your questions.
Best wishes
Alex
Since moving from Havant in Hants just over two years ago our council tax has soared. We had a 4 bedroom house before where we have a 3 bed bungalow now and are paying around £40 more per month.
We are both pensioners but don’t qualify for benefits having a works pension each but still knocks us for six and now yet another increase.
Havant managed to freeze council tax for 4 years so why can’t Dorset economise their spending?
Can you explain what “property rationalisation” means and how it might impact on the ratepayer.
Hi Gillian,
We are currently undergoing a property asset review. This means that we are looking at everything the council owns [land, property etc] and working out what we might keep, lease, sell etc. This is a big piece of work and we will be explaining more about it in the coming months once it starts to take further shape.
thanks
Alex
You could save more money if you did not waste it on rubbish road schemes such as that outside of Hogshill Stores Beaminster. Any locals would have told you that because here are so many cars parked along the stretch at most times, other vehicles have to slow . Safety of the children from the loval school is not, therefore compromised.
When I was a Dorset County Councillor ,I wrote to the Government that by restricting the Councils in the amount hey could increase the council tax ,is a bad move because it saved pence and lost pounds in the cut to services .
Please keep the services in place with the council tax as funding for the service.
Please can you tell me where I am to get the required 4% increase from?. My pension will go up by inflation linked amounts, about 2%. I will not benefit from the social care even though I am 83 years old because I have a little saved. Is this fair? Having worked and saved hard all my life I am now faced with a descent into poorer living each year. Please don’t reply with platitudes, I know nothing will happen and you will take no notice and I will pay more for less.
Please do not cut buses any more than you already have, they are really necessary for us oldies to get about.
Also could you reconsider the concession about using the bus pass before 9.30 if there is no other bus that day. Gillingham to Salisbury only has one bus a day and that leaves at 9.08 am. forcing us to pay. The only other way to get to Salisbury is to go to Shaftesbury, wait about an hour and get the Salisbury bus from there, then more waiting on the way back, as connections don’t happen. You are travelling half the day for a couple of hours shopping.
I suppose as usual the bus service from Beaminster to Bridport will be hit.
Hi Caroline,
Last year, members agreed to harmonise council tax across Dorset as part of local government reorganisation. You can read more about that process here: https://www.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk/council-tax/bands-and-charges/your-bill-explained.aspx
I believe it is possible to spread payments over 12 months. If you’re having problems paying your Council Tax, contact us and we’ll do all we can to help.
Thanks
Alex
Hi Rodney
The reorganisation of councils in Dorset has brought six council workforces into one. This piece of work removes duplicate roles and reviews service structures and is forecast to provide an additional £17.2m in this financial year alone. We are working hard on an ambitious internal transformation programme that will continue to deliver service efficiency, not service cuts.
All the savings that have been made since LGR are now being reinvested in to important services that are costing us more every year, due a number of factors. You can read more in the budget papers being presented to Cabinet on 28 January here: https://moderngov.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk/documents/g228/Public%20reports%20pack%2028th-Jan-2020%2010.00%20Dorset%20Council%20-%20Cabinet.pdf?T=10
Thanks
Alex
I have recently retired and paid tax all my working life. I have always understood that my tax was collected by central government and this funded adult and child services. The fact that the government have made a unilateral decision to cut this funding and push it down to local councils is immoral. I feel that I am being taxed twice! The increases to cover adult and childcare services base on central governments refusal to continue funding something they have been doing for decades is wrong and the councils should be pushing back on central government and not just accepting this with a defeatist attitude. If central government want the council to manage adult and children’s services, they should supply the funding from central taxes and not put the burden on council tax. This is just another indirect tax on top of income tax!
Dorset has one of the highest Council Tax charges in the south of England and the Council claims the rural nature of our landscape results in higher costs. Well, with the level of house building and traffic in our region, it doesn’t feel so rural these days. With the large proportion of pensioners in Dorset, we all acutely feel the pain of Council tax rises. As pension increases don’t cover these ever growing charges pensioners income is always decreasing.
Councils use the soft target householders to squeeze rather than fight it out with the Government.
Hi Rob
The true facts are, Dorset has the second highest average council tax in England.
I add to comments made by previous contributors:
Every year without exception, if my experiences are representative, the disposable income of pensioners decreases (3.9% increase in State Pension this year. However, my costs – insurances, council tax, energy, water, and other necessary living expenses – have already increased by percentages sometimes well above this figure). Thus, yet again, I have to cut my expenditure and reduce my standard of living – an annual exercise. But the ultimate economic consequences of this pattern, if it is pursued, will be that the council will be unable to collect business taxes because businesses will be failing (the effect of the Internet traders is misunderstood: it’s not that they are convenient, it’s because they are cheap – consider the rise in the market share of supermarkets such as Aldi) as people have less and less disposable income, and the council tax burden will increase for those that can pay, as more and more folk, particularly pensioners, will have to claim exemptions.
I recently removed to West/North Dorset from West Sussex and my understanding was that Council Tax was set in April 1991 based on the property values at that time. The house I occupied – detached, four bedrooms, three receptions, three garages, in half-an acre of land – was rated Band E in West Sussex (current value £950,000, with Council Tax at £2,181-38 p.a. in 2019-2020). The property I occupy in West /North Dorset – a very small terraced house – is rated at Band D (current value £275,000, with Council Tax at £2,144-21 p.a. in 2019-2020).
I leave it to readers to determine whether those folk who have previously commented adversely on the effects of Council Tax increases on pensioners, and of the high levels of council tax levied in West/North Dorset, may have points.