SOUTH SOMERSET NEWS: District council set to increase its share of the Council Tax

SOUTH Somerset District Council will discuss tonight (Thursday, February 25, 2016) its budget plans for the 2016-17 financial year.

Members will be asked to increase the district’s slice of the Council Tax by 1.95% (£2.88 on a Band D household) – which is less than the £5 cap per Band D allowed by the Government.

The Government has reduced the support grant it gives to councils, eliminating the grant completely by 2020. For the district council this means a cut of more than £1m this year and by 2019-20, total savings of £4.1m will be required, including an additional penalty of £330,000 having to be handed back to central government.

Efficiency improvements have meant that the district council’s spending has fallen significantly. In 2008-09 the annual budget was £19.7m and the proposed 2016-17 budget is just £17.3m. This represents a cut of 28% after inflation.

The district council has targeted new savings of £1.3 million for 2016-17 including staffing costs of £365k, income generation of £703k, and savings on assets of £83k.

A council spokesman said: “It is however worth bearing in mind that after years of frozen tax and last year’s cut, the new charge is still less than the Council Tax set in February 2010.

“In addition to the budget rise, a further 1.25% (£1.85 per Band D household) will be collected by SSDC for the Somerset Rivers Authority (SRA) to fund flood prevention work. This is a temporary arrangement pending the primary legislation required to give the SRA powers to raise its own funds. The SRA has received no central Government funding for 2016-17.”

The council’s finance and legal services spokesman, Cllr Peter Seib, said: “All local authorities are being hit by this shift from grant funding to local taxation and we expect the average Council Tax rise to be higher than ours.

“Government is making the largest, early cuts to “Shire Districts” like South Somerset. SSDC has already made significant efficiency improvements, our spending per household is in the lowest 20% nationally and this was achieved through careful cost management rather than service cuts.”

Leader of the council, Cllr Ric Pallister, added: “Austerity continues to hit all councils hard and South Somerset is no different.

“Government is now expecting district councils to raise their Council Tax by at least 1.75% and up to 2.00% or £5 per annum after a number of years when the objective was to freeze it.

“Despite the significant financial challenges ahead of us there is a confidence that by changing the way we work, costs can be reduced. The goal we are aiming for is balancing the budget over the medium term whilst maintaining or even improving our services to the public without the need to cut the discretionary services such as managing the country parks.

“Financial uncertainty, created by the changes to the new way we are to be funded to provide public services, is set to dog us for the foreseeable future. This means that there aren’t any easy answers and it will be hard work, but both officers and members are determined to keep on delivering for our residents.”

The council does retain some of the business rates it collects locally and estimates show that we expect to keep £3.9m of the £44m it will collect next year. However, £2.6m will need to be used to fund backdated business valuation appeals and further appeals are pending. The Government has yet to clarify its future plans for business rates.

The overall 2016-17 Council Tax bill – which will land through people’s letterboxes in April – sees Somerset County Council take the lion’s share with the district council, town/parish council, Avon and Somerset Police and the Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service receiving the remainder.

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