South Tyneside Council spending plans revealed for 2024/25, including council tax hike and savings package

Proposals in the borough’s medium-term financial plan have been published and aim to deliver a balanced budget against a backdrop of increasing cost pressures and savings targets.

The local authority has proposed council tax increases in recent years to help maintain council services, with more than half of the council’s government funding having been slashed since 2010.

Plans for the 2024/25 financial year see a similar picture, with the council needing to save £7 million, as well as using around £8 million of its reserves.

Proposed savings for next year are on top of the £201 million the council has already had to save since 2010, with even more spending cuts predicted in future years.

Town hall finance chiefs have previously called for more sustainable funding from the Government to support local councils.

Despite pressures on council budgets, borough bosses are confident they have plans in place to keep key services moving next year and beyond, as well as making progress on wider council priorities and protecting vulnerable residents.

Councillor Joanne Bell, the council’s cabinet member for governance, finance and corporate services, said: “To continually deliver this level of savings is becoming increasingly difficult.

“Our services protect those in need and deliver essential services such as beach cleansing, street lighting, bin collections, maintaining the roads and cleaning the streets.

“But we also provide support to older people, people with disabilities and looked after children in care.

“The cost of adults and children’s social care accounts for 70 per cent of the council’s discretionary budget so balancing the budget and protecting essential services is harder than ever before.”

The council states it has made big changes to the way it works in recent years, with a focus on evidence-based decisions aligned with its ambitions and the borough’s 20-year vision, which was developed with input from residents.

The council has also weighed up pressures such as increased demand for services, reduced central government funding, and competing commitments, priorities, and ambitions.

While councillors will be asked to agree the budget for 2024/25 at a meeting next month, the medium-term financial plan also includes proposals beyond this to reduce risk and to help with planning and delivery.

Wider revenue budget proposals are linked to prevention, income generation and ensuring that the council is modern and effective.

In social care, investment in adult social care accommodation and better use of assisted technologies aims to support people to live independently at home.

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Investment in children’s care homes will help expand local provision and reduce costly out-of-borough placements, while lower-income families will be supported through a revamped council tax reduction scheme.

The council is also looking to make changes to bring it in line with regional neighbours on home-to-school transport and car parking, with council parking charges set to rise in South Shields town centre and the foreshore.

Elsewhere, school meal prices will be frozen for a fourth year, with South Tyneside Council noting its record in providing ‘the cheapest provision in the region’.

The council also continues to press the case for fair funding from central government, as well as the increased pressures around adult and children’s social care which account for some 70 per cent of the council’s discretionary budget.

Nearly half of the council’s £7 million savings in 2024/25 will come from adult social services and commissioning, along with savings proposals to delete around 60 vacant council job posts, reduced energy costs for the council, increased car parking income and other proposals.

The council’s Labour leaders are also proposing a council tax increase of 4.95 per cent, which is a combination of the Government’s two per cent adult social care levy, ringfenced for those services, and a 2.95 per cent increase in council tax.

This means an increase for council services of around £1.16 per week for an average Band A class household, into which the majority of homes in South Tyneside fall.

Council bosses state they will continue to support more than 10,000 working-age residents who need help with their council tax bills due to their personal circumstances.

The updated council tax reduction scheme, agreed by full council earlier this month, aims to provide a fairer and more transparent system to both understand and administer.

Despite pressures in revenue budgets, the council states it is still committed to sustaining its current capital programme to help regenerate the borough and its assets and to drive investment and jobs.

Capital plans include town centre masterplans, district energy schemes, the relocation of South Tyneside College in South Shields, improved facilities at the Customs House and the development of housing at Holborn Riverside.

Other plans include improving council housing and boosting active travel along the borough’s coast road, along with expanding Mortimer Community College, upgrading the council’s vehicle fleet, tackling ‘untidy sites’, works at Middlefields and continued investment into the International Advanced Manufacturing Park.

The majority of capital projects have supporting external funding such as the £20 million Levelling Up funding for South Shields Riverside, £20 million for Jarrow as part of the Towns Fund and £20 million awarded to South Tyneside as a Levelling Up partnership area.

Following a chain of successful funding applications, the council hopes to use ‘tactical investment’ in future to bring more external funding into the borough.

South Tyneside Council’s cabinet will consider the medium-term financial plan when it next meets on Wednesday, January 31, 2024.

Spending plans will then be considered by all elected councillors at the annual budget meeting on Thursday, February 22, 2024.