Council tax rise proposed to cover £19m budget gap

Sandwell Council will be pushing ahead with plans to increase council tax by five per cent from April – which equates to between £55 and £65 more for the majority of households in the borough.

The council has also revealed a series of cuts which it says are required to fill the near-£19 million gap in its accounts.

The proposed savings include more than £8 million from the council’s corporate budget, £2 million from education and children’s services, more than £4 million from adult social care and another £4 million from the council’s regeneration, housing, public health and borough economy budgets.

Some of the biggest cuts and money-saving plans include slashing the budget for parks, green spaces and ground maintenance by £736,000 alongside a £256,000 reduction to the borough’s library budget.

Early budget plans also proposed cutting nearly £200,000 from the school crossings budget.

Council bosses are also proposing to continue with a ‘review’ of the borough’s SEND transport system – which provides free transport for children who cannot walk to school because of their special educational needs and disabilities – which it is believed will save £700,000.

A proposed reduction in ‘high-cost services’ would cut £1 million from the adult social care budget.

Bosses are also planning a temporary ban on recruitment with a council-wide ‘vacancy freeze’ saving around £7 million.

‘Efficiencies’ and ‘value for money initiatives’ would save nearly half a million pounds from the children’s services budget, the council has claimed.

By law, the council must set a balanced budget so the huge shortfall needs to be closed before March when councillors set the coming year’s budget.

And while Sandwell’s medium-term financial plan shows a predicted £19 million gap in the authority’s accounts for the coming 12 months, the planned cuts are by no means one-offs with future financial predictions showing £18 million cuts in 2025/26 and yearly £19.5 million cuts in 2026, 2027 and 2028.

The proposed five per cent increase would only cover Sandwell Council’s share of council tax with shares for the region’s police and fire services still to be determined.