BUDGET AND COUNCIL TAX CONSULTATION

2009/10 to 2011/12

About this consultation

Each year the Council consults council tax payers on its likely budget and council tax proposals. This also provides an opportunity for the Council to tell council tax payers how it expects to become more efficient in its use of your money, and what its recent performance has been.

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.

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 2009.

The Council Plan priorities

Last year 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:

1Investing in children and young people, excellent standards of achievement for all our young people

2Improving health, modernising community care and health services, older people experiencing good health and well-being with a focus on sustaining independence and personalised care in later years

3Managing future development, to provide housing development which is vibrant, cohesive, sustainable and well integrated with our existing communities

4Access and transportation, through innovative partnership working to provide a transport infrastructure that rivals any major European city

The Council will also promote four longer term priorities:

1Promoting safer and stronger communities,

2Valuing the environment,

3Maintaining economic prosperity,

4Delivering our internal improvement programme.

Copies of the full Council Plan are available at

The Council’s money and performance

Compared to other similar councils, the Council is low spending (4th lowest out of 46), high performing (11thout of 46), with a council tax just a few percent above the average. So for most services, the Council’s costs are in the lowest 25% of unitary councils, and performance is often in the top 25%. This combination of low cost and good performance shows that the Council gives good value for money.

The Council and its services and value for money are subject to extensive independent inspection. In September 2008, the Council was awarded 4 star status by the Audit Commission. This is the highest accolade a council can be awarded. Only three out of 46 unitary councils have achieved this level.

The Council has received other national awards. It has Beacon status for a number of services. It has also been awarded Chartermark for some services.

In addition, surveys have shown that 90% of residents are satisfied with the local area as a place to live, 85% of residents feel safe in South Gloucestershire during the day, and 57% are satisfied with the Council. This satisfaction level puts the Council in the top 25% of unitary councils.

The Annual Report on Council Performance contains more detail, and can be found at

The Budget and Council tax strategy

The Council has a ten year medium term financial plan. This provides for resources to be directed to priority areas. It assumes a level of annual savings, improving value for money, and a reducing level of council tax increases over the next ten years.

In September, the Council’s political leaders – the Administration – said that they aimed to set two financial priorities. These reflect the pressure on household budgets, and the current economic climate.

  1. Setting a more ambitious savings target to deliver greater efficiencies with an aim of not impacting directly on frontline council services
  2. Setting lower council tax increases for each of the next three years, and a target over time of matching the national inflation target of 2%.

In setting these aims, the Administration wants to achieve a council tax increase of 3.9% in 2009/10, 3.4% in 2010/11 and 2.9% in 2011/12. Thereafter, the council tax increase would fall in stages to 2% in 2017/18.

This lower level of council tax increase means that more savings need to be achieved. It raises the annual savings target to an average of 3% a year. This is challenging, but achievable. A later section shows how the Council will approach this target.

Existing budget commitments

The Council has already agreed a number of spending priorities to deliver its Council Plan priorities over the next three years. The largest of these are:

Investment / Which years
Youth transport provision / £1,200,000 / 2010/11
Growth in care for older people / £1,800,000 / 2009 to 2012
Waste, to divert waste from landfill / £800,000 / 2009 to 2012
Building schools for the future, preparatory work / £200,000 / 2010/11
Increasing independence for older people / £200,000 / 2009/10
Provision for client care budgets / £200,000 / 2009 to 2011
Street Care and community facilities / £200,000 / 2009 to 2012
5 extra Police Community Support Officers / £150,000 / 2009/10
Total / £4,750,000

In addition, the Council will have to continue to cope with many budget pressures. Inflation on energy, transport and some client care costs are a real concern. The adverse impact of current economic conditions is increasing costs as some client numbers increase, and the Council’s income is falling as household income falls. There is no extra Government support for these costs.

Being more efficient

The Council has a good record of being more efficient in recent years, but it now wants to do even better. It is proposing to adopt an approach of transforming the Council’s back office functions to further improve value for money. The aim is for these changes to have no significant impact on front line services. This approach has been successfully adopted by other organisations.

The initial work to set up this programme of savings is now underway. It is likely that most of the savings will come from the following five major areas:

  1. Streamlining its financial management, human resource and IT support systems and processes.
  2. Improving the way it uses information to improve performance
  3. Improving the way the Council uses and manages its transport resources
  4. Streamlining the way the Council deals with planning applications
  5. Improving the way that residents can contact the Council, and make it easier to assess their needs

The expectation is that eventually these proposals will reduce the Council’s annual spending by nearly 7%. This is a challenging target. It will be necessary to invest to achieve these efficiencies. But in the long term, they will see more of the Council’s resources devoted to front line services, and less to back office functions, and better value for money for council tax payers.

These changes will reduce the number of staff employed by the Council in these areas. These reductions will be achieved over a number of years, and with the minimum possible impact on current members of staff.

Have your say

The Council wants your views on its budget and council tax strategy. Your views can then inform the decision making in February 2009.

At the end of this document is a questionnaire which lets you have your say. You can complete this online at or email your views to , or complete the questionnaire and return it to the Council’s freepost address by:

Freepost

RRXL-BKJJ-EUYX

South Gloucestershire Council

Customer Feedback

Castle Street

Thornbury

Bristol

BS35 1HF

Please return the completed questionnaire to us by Friday 12th December 2008

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

Bradley Stoke CommunitySchool, 3 December 2008, at 7:00pm

Kingwood Civic Centre, 15 December 2008, at 7:00pm

Consultation questions

Based on the information provided please could you answer the following questions.

Q1 To what extent do you agree or disagree with each of these statements…? Please tick one box per row

Strongly agree / Tend to agree / Neither agree nor disagree / Tend to disagree / Strongly disagree / Don’t know
South Gloucestershire has a well managed council /  /  /  /  /  / 
The council makes good use of its resources /  /  /  /  /  / 
The council provides good value given the amount of council tax you pay /  /  /  /  /  / 
The council provides enough information about its performance and finances /  /  /  /  /  / 

Q2 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 / 
Adult / community education services / 
Youth services / 
Libraries / 
Leisure centres / 
Social services / 
Environmental services (inc. noise, nuisance, trading standards) / 
Refuse collection / 
Bus passes / 
Planning services / 
Other (please specify) / 
None of these / 

Q3 The Council aims to deliver low cost, but high performance services by setting its council tax charges at a level similar to the national average. 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). / 
Provide a low cost, more basic level of service by charging below the average level of council tax. / 
Provide an average cost, high quality service by charging an above the average level of council tax. / 

Q4 The council aims to make better use of its resources and have embarked on a number of efficiency saving measures which are listed below. To what extent do you agree or disagree with these proposals? Please tick one boxper row

Strongly agree / Tend to agree / Neither agree nor disagree / Tend to disagree / Strongly disagree / Don’t know
Streamlining the Council’s financial management, human resource and IT support systems and processes. /  /  /  /  /  / 
Improving the way the Council uses information to improve performance. /  /  /  /  /  / 
Improving the way the Council uses and manages its transport resources. /  /  /  /  /  / 
Streamlining the way the Council deals with planning applications. /  /  /  /  /  / 
Improving the way that residents can contact the Council, and make it easier to assess their needs. /  /  /  /  /  / 

Q5 Do you have any further comments to make about the council budget? If so please write in the box below