Dorset Council has published its initial proposals to deliver a balanced budget next financial year, 2022-23. Proposals will go to both Place & Resources Scrutiny Committee and People & Health Scrutiny Committee for consideration on 10 December.
The council is required by law to set a balanced budget which means its expenditure must be balanced by income without unsustainable use of one-off, or short-term sources of finance.
This year’s budget setting exercise once more takes place against a continuing, national background of extreme pressures for councils resulting from the coronavirus pandemic, alongside escalating demand to support residents who need core council services to help keep them safe and well.
Dorset Council’s cost pressures have been well documented in the quarterly financial management reports to Cabinet and in the budget update provided in October.
This means that Dorset Council faces a budget gap of just under £36.1m in 2022-23. This figure is significant but not out of step with other councils. It is hoped that the proposed balanced budget will close this gap to £4.5m by applying a wide range of savings, aiming to improve efficiency even further and protect frontline services.
The council proposes to increase council tax next year by just under 2% and to levy the adult social care precept of 1% – in line with the Government’s Spending Review. This is equivalent to £1.02 extra per week for a Band D property.
It is anticipated that the remaining shortfall of £4.5M be closed when the Government announces the final allocation of funding in late December.
Cllr Gary Suttle, Dorset Council’s Portfolio Holder for Finance, Commercial and Capital Strategy, said:
“It has been particularly challenging developing the budget for next financial year, 2022-23. In Dorset we have a demand for council services that is growing more quickly than funding we receive from Govt, the income we raise or council tax, which means constantly looking at doing things differently or more efficiently.
“We believe we have developed proposals to deliver a balanced budget, but the financial challenges are enormous. We are sorry that we have had to propose a council tax increase – we know this will impact residents and local businesses. There will be support available for the hardest hit.
“As elected members we have to make tough choices and find new ways to fund the vital support for Dorset’s communities. We will continue to lobby the Government for further funding.”
Following discussion of the budget proposals at the scrutiny committees, the proposals will be reviewed and submitted to Cabinet in January, and then to Full Council in February for final approval.
The two scrutiny meetings are being held virtually in separate Teams Live Events on 10 December as follows:
- 10.00am People and Health Scrutiny Committee
- 11.30am Place and Resources Scrutiny Committee (or on the closing of the People & Health Scrutiny Committee)
Anyone wishing to watch both meetings will need to leave the first one at the end of the meeting in order to start watching the second meeting. Place and Resources Scrutiny Committee will not start until the People and Health Scrutiny Committee has finished (which may be after 11.30am – we will not start the live feed for the second meeting until the first meeting has finished).
As we know, Dorset’s council tax is close to the highest in the UK. Given that this is not down to the level of services provided, could someone from the council set out broadly the factors applying in Dorset (lower government funding? demographics?) vs. elsewhere which lead to this?
Hello Peter, thank you for your comment. If you click here it will take you to the budget report, which sets out exactly the reasons why our council tax is higher than other areas. Thank you again, Kirstie
Thanks, Kirstie. However, the linked document is tightly focussed on framing the Dorset budget. I did not find in it anything which benchmarks the elements of and factors affecting Dorset’s budget against those of other local authorities; which was the essence of my question. Does CIPFA do any relevant analysis?
You’re, basically saying our Council tax will go up by a MAXIMUM of £53 PER ANNUM FOR A BAND D PROPERTY!
Let’s hope the council award a payrise in line with inflation and living costs to its frontline workers, so they can afford to live in the area so you can employ them. You are squeezing the lower paid too much, some of us were lucky enough to live in a Band D house, but have survived on low Mortgage rates for the last 8 years, but we are now facing increased expenditure in Fuel, food, clothes, and Taxation and increased National Insurance contributions. Where are we meant to keeping finding the little extra from on all areas of expenditure? Your own employees can’t even afford to live in the area because of poor pay rates. Makes me sick with worry if we get an increased Interest rate.
Hello Anonymous, in the report which councillors will be discussing on Friday, it makes reference to the Chancellor’s Spending Review of 2021 where he stated that the public sector pay freeze will end in 2022 and that the national living wage will increase by 6.6% to £9.50 from 1 April next year. Any pay rises for public sector employees is set nationally. Thanks, Kirstie
My wife and I are both pensioners trying to survive on state pensions. We’ve both worked all our lives and paid into the system. Long term sick leave and occupational pensions were never an option for me unlike council employees. This year the government announced that the triple lock on pensions would be broken and that our pensions wouldn’t be going up with the cost of living any more. Council Tax in Dorset is pretty much the highest in the country and is our biggest annual expenditure. Dorset is also the county that returns least to its population in terms of new infra-structure and sevices. Fuel is our 2nd biggest expenditure and that is going up by 50% this yeAR . In order to eat next year it looks like I will have to turn to crime or simply go on working until I drop dead.
Dear Mr Charmichael, I am sorry to hear of your situation, I do sympathise. There are a couple of options open to you which may or may not be useful. You may be able to claim council tax support. And also to Citizens Advice Dorset if you’re struggling with bills etc: Dorset Adviceline Freephone 0800 144 8848 (citizensadvicedorset.org.uk). I hope this helps, Kirstie.
I daresay that the few small savings I have salted away over the years to support me in old age disqualifies me from both of these facilities. I can certainly be sure that the council won’t be meeting its obligations in this respect.
Besides this is an issue of fairness. Why should I have to pay more than anyone else in the country simply because I live in Dorset.
Why should I have to pay council tax out of income that is already taxed.
I work in social care, a Day Services Officer for Tricuro, the LATC for Dorset Council. Since Covid have been supporting clients increasingly in the community as best as poss with social workers often not available/working from home, so we and care assistants are working well beyond pay grades. We workers are under increasing need from vulnerable adults and we do the best we can but the cuts from government are having a huge detrimental impact on those who need care, let alone the pay we social care workers get which isn’t meeting the rising costs of living. Do understand DC are struggling with the lack of necessary funding from government but do hope you are flagging up these concerns so that gov are at least aware and might possibly take notice and action.
Hi Stella, absolutely. Our leader, Cllr Spencer Flower lobbies central Govt frequently (and increasingly firmly) about the rising costs of adult social care in Dorset and how our current funding deal from Govt could impact future service delivery. Thanks, Kirstie
It’ seems the problem is that Dorset has a heavy bias towards high percentage of ageing population vs. a younger, working, higher income population. Why are we not looking at attracting younger people to move / live here? It seems this will help balance the budget.
As a young person myself who lives in the area renting currently if finding it increasingly impossible to afford. It is with regret that this year I will have to move out of Dorset as I simply can’t afford to rent hear let alone buy next year. This increases my commute time from 15 minutes to nearer 2 hours traffic dependent and really not something I want to do.
I love the area and the community here with the people I meet.
unfortunately with the increased cost of living, increases in fuel and heating, food, and the pending council tax with the lack in increase to wages to meet this! (calculations mean you need to earn an additional £800-1,000 on a 20K salary to be in the same position as last year! due to all of the increases) this is no longer a viable option as every single penny counts.
to top this all off we pay a lot in council tax and there have been several instances of bins not being collected! I understand that every department is struggling at the moment to keep afloat with increases from every direction but surely they can arrange a bin collection?