SOUTHEND Council have passed their budget for 2017/18 meaning council tax will rise by 4.99 per cent in April. 

Council tax will rise by 1.99 per cent and a 3 per cent ring-fenced social care precept has been approved. In total this amounts to £1.15 per week for a Band D property or £60.12 a year.

At Full Council last night, it was also revealed it needed to bridge an £11m budget gap, with £6.921m of departmental savings plus £0.581m from Public Health being identified and approved.

In addition, council reserves of £3.8m will be used to offset the estimated reduction in business rates and smooth the council’s budget gap over the next three years.

The council will also invest £3m into services to deal with spending pressures including £1m to deal with the implications of the national living wage, £500,000 to care for an ageing population that need council support, £400,000 to help children with learning disabilities move into adult social care, and £600,000 for added demand and cost pressures in children’s services. An additional £2m will also be invested in one-off essential projects.

Car parking charges will also be frozen, and in some cases reduced, and cemetery and crematorium charges and Pier entry charges have also been frozen.

This follows confirmation that the main grant the council receives from central Government will decrease by £6.7m – 31 per cent reduction - to £14.7m. By 2020 it is anticipated that the council will receive no core grant at all and will be reliant on council tax, business rates, and fees and charges as its main sources of funding.

£79m of additional funding for capital projects over the next four years has also been identified for expanded secondary schools, a new care campus for the elderly, an Innovation Centre at Airport Business Park Southend, and investment in the council’s housing stock, the Pier, parks and car parking improvements.

Tenant rents will be reduced by 1% in 2017/18, although the council has highlighted that this national policy means it will have around £3.8m less in HRA resources each year for the next three years, severely reducing the funds available to build new council housing.