Budget and Council Tax Consultation

BUDGET AND COUNCIL TAX CONSULTATION 2010/11 to 2012/13

About this Consultation

The Council consults Council Tax payers each year before agreeing its budget and council tax. This is your opportunity to comment on the Council’s priorities, its council tax and proposals to improve services and increase efficiency.

The Council spends over £400M a year, delivering many services. These include schools, care of the elderly, waste collection and disposal, and highways. About a quarter of this spending is funded from the council tax. About 10% comes from charges for services, and about two thirds comes from Government.

This is your opportunity to express your views about how the council uses your money. You can make your views known by responding online, in person at two public events planned for December, or in writing. The Council will consider these responses before it makes its final decisions on the budget and council tax in February 2010.

The Economy

The Council expects the impact of the credit crunch to last for around the next 10 years. This is how long Government are expected to need to reduce the current very high levels of the national debt. The Council expects that Government funding will not increase over that period, while income from other sources falls and demand for services increase. At the same time, residents expect lower council tax rises.

Council Plan

Two years ago the Council adopted a new set of priorities for the next three years. These are based on what residents said was important for the area of South Gloucestershire. There are four main priorities for the next few years:

·  Better pupil achievement in schools.

·  Less congestion on the roads.

·  More integrated housing development.

·  Better health care for the elderly.

In particular, the Council is investing significant sums in the following areas:

·  Provision for a youth transport scheme / £1.2m a year
·  Growth in care for older people / £0.6m a year
·  Waste, to divert waste from landfill / £0.25m a year
·  Building schools for the future – preparatory work / £0.2m a year
·  Extra highway maintenance funding / £2m a year

Council Performance

South Gloucestershire is the fifth lowest funded unitary council in the country. At the same time, the latest information shows the Council’s performance to be the best amongst all unitary councils. Residents’ satisfaction with the Council overall is in the top six for all unitaries. The council tax is just above average. Together, these all indicate that the Council offers very good value for money.

Council Strategy and Transformational Service Review Programme

The Council intends to continue with this strategy of offering good value for money. To achieve this, the Council intends to undertake a programme of transformational service reviews. The aim is to review all administrative and support roles, and to reduce spending in these areas. The aim is not to reduce services to residents. But there would be changes to the way residents interact with the council. In the longer term, there should be an improvement in customer satisfaction levels, value for money, and an increase in the proportion of staff engaged in frontline service delivery. There is no plan to reduce the number of posts involved in frontline service delivery to residents.

The outline of reviews represents very significant cultural change. It should save 317 posts, and£12M a year. A larger number of posts will see some change to their working patterns. It will take three years to achieve this level of savings.

This programme will allow the Council to deliver its aspiration for lower council tax increases. For the next three years, the Council is considering a council tax increase of 2.9% next year, then 2.5% in 2011/12, and then 2% every year thereafter.

There are other options. The Council could set a lower council tax, and reduce front line services to achieve this. Or it could avoid the need for greater efficiencies but have larger council tax increases. The Council’s preferred option is to become more efficient, and protect front line services.

Have your say

The Council wants your views on its budget and council tax strategy before it takes decisions in February 2010.

At the end of this document is a questionnaire which lets you have your say. You can complete this online at www.southglos.gov.ukUH, or email your views to , or complete the questionnaire and return it using the pre-paid envelope attached (no stamp required).

Please return the completed questionnaire to us by Friday 11th December 2009

There will also be two public meetings in December which you can attend:

·  Kingswood Civic Centre, 3 December 2009 at 7:00pm

·  Bradley Stoke Community School, 8 December 2009 at 7:00pm

If you are a business rates payer (NNDR) you may like to attend a public meeting which will be held on:

·  14 January 2010 at 2pm at Thornbury Council Offices in the Council Chamber

CONSULTATION QUESTIONS

Based on the information provided please answer the following questions.

Q1 / To what extent do you agree or disagree that South Gloucestershire Council provides value for money?
Strongly
agree / Tend to agree / Neither / Tend to disagree / Strongly disagree
r / r / r / r / r
Q2 / Which of the following is the most important to you, and which is the least important?
Most important / Least important
Good value for money / r / r
Low cost / r / r
High performance / r / r
Q3 / Do you think the Council should…….?
Please tick one box only
Provide a low cost, above average service, by charging an average level of council tax (the current strategy). / q
Provide a low cost, more basic level of service by charging below the average level of council tax. / q
Provide an average cost, high quality service by charging an above the average level of council tax. / q
Q4 / How do you think the Council should save £12m a year?
Please tick one box only
By reducing some services to the public. / q
By maintaining front line services, but being more efficient and so reducing support service costs / q
By minimising the need to save money by having a higher council tax / q
By combining with other public sector bodies like health to provide some joint services / q

About You

It helps the Council understand your responses if we know a bit more about you, and the services you use.

Q5 / Are you:
A Council Tax payer and a resident / r
A resident only / r
Representing an organisation / r
Other, please state / r
Q6 / Which of the following council services have you or members of your immediate household used in the last year?
Please tick all that apply
Schools / r
Libraries / r
Care for the elderly / r
Refuse collection / r
Bus passes / r
Planning services / r
Leisure facilities / r
Housing and Council Tax benefits / r
None of these / r
Q7 / How would you prefer to contact the Council in each of the following situations? Please tick one box in each row
In person / By telephone / By email / Via Council website / By post / By SMS text / Don’t know
…report an issue or problem / q / q / q / q / q / q / q
…ask for advice or information / q / q / q / q / q / q / q
…request or apply to use a service / q / q / q / q / q / q / q
…make a complaint / q / q / q / q / q / q / q
…update the details the council holds about you / q / q / q / q / q / q / q
…follow up an enquiry / q / q / q / q / q / q / q

Please use this box below if you have any other comments on the Council’s budget.

Thank you for taking the time to complete this questionnaire. Please return it to us by Friday 11th December 2009 using the pre-paid envelope attached (no stamp required).