A special joint meeting of two council scrutiny committees is due to discuss the budget, the need for savings and a proposed council tax rise of 5 per cent next year.
One of the aims is to give councillors who are members of the council’s cabinet a chance to feed in ideas as the budget for the next financial year takes shape.
Brighton and Hove City Council spends about £1.1 billion a year in total and recently published figures suggest a need to find savings totalling £36.7 million in 2025-26.
Over the coming four years, the council expects to have to find savings totalling £105 million.
The savings drive is made harder because much of the money received by the council is ring-fenced such as the dedicated schools grant, housing benefits and funding for public health services.
And many of the council’s services are statutory – they have to be provided by law – but the council may not always be able to control demand.
One example is home to school transport. Factors such as higher wages and rising fuel prices have pushed up the cost for councils up and down by the country.
Another example of a cost pressure linked to a statutory service is the introduction of food waste collections in the coming financial year.
The council expects to spend £1.4 million. It may be eligible for a share of a £1.1 billion government fund but is awaiting further details.
More examples of the financial challenges and potential savings are set out in a report to the special joint meeting of the People Overview and Scrutiny Committee and Place Overview and Scrutiny Committee scheduled for tomorrow (Thursday 28 November).
The report said: “There are many ‘moving parts’ and still a significant number of uncertainties with regard to the financial impact of the autumn statement on local government and this council.
“At the upper end, the funding announcements above may reduce identified pressures next year by up to £10 million, leaving a significant shortfall of £26.7 million to be addressed.
“The conclusion is that the authority will therefore need to deliver significant savings next year and over the medium-term through investment in spend-to-save and transformation programmes to seek to achieve council plan aims and financial sustainability.”
Among the ideas for tackling costs over the next four years are proposals to provide some home to school transport and children’s and adult social care services “in-house” – and possibly using AI (artificial intelligence).
Members are asked to provide comment and recommendations to the cabinet in relation to potential areas for budget savings proposals and feedback on the planned budget development timetable and approach.
The special joint meeting of the People Overview and Scrutiny Committee and Place Overview and Scrutiny Committee is due to start at 4pm tomorrow at Hove Town Hall. The meeting is scheduled to be webcast on the council’s website.
Sell the i3nasty for scrap and send Jason Kitcat the bill.
You’d still end up with a ton of debt and now you have no way to pay for it, because you’ve sold the asset, unfortunately.
If you could find him
Well their isn’t that many people called Kit-Kat
Stop working from home and heating empty offices.
As above, ensure you get paid for the i360 or scrap it.
Get rid of cycle lanes in Madeira drive and bring back parking, on busy days it’s losing £6 per foot-I will let you work that out!
Stop valley gardens roundabout replacement scheme.
Windfall tax on hotels-there making a fortune.
Stop working from home and heating empty offices.
As above, ensure you get paid for the i360 or scrap it.
Get rid of cycle lanes in Madeira drive and bring back parking, on busy days it’s losing £6 per foot-I will let you work that out!
Stop valley gardens roundabout replacement scheme.
Windfall tax on hotels-there making a fortune.
-scrap the stainless from i360, worth a few £
-scrap valley gardens stage3
-fix madeira terrace arches – will get tourists back, which in turn mean revenue
-lower parking costs (yes you read that correct), lower parking costs will entice more people to the city during bank holidays, nicer weather
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.
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-stop hiring useless overpriced consulting firms and listen to your constituency
Madeira Arches are already underway. I am unconvinced they will be bringing more tourists though, considering our hotel occupancies are already pretty capped. Still, an important project for many.
Parking prices are being looked at already as well, reducing them to see if it has an impact on the city centre. Current evidence based says it doesn’t really translate to business, but may help in the tourist side of things. Watch this space I think with that one.
Certainly a decent point more generally around the tender process. It is a well established perspective that council tends to pay over the odds for work and contracts.
The terraces are being fixed but even when they are they won’t earn any income to help the budget.
They have lowered some parking charges but the parking surplus is in a legally separate fund and can’t be used to support the general budget. Also when visitors do spend money in bars and shops etc the council gets none of that income
i360 yes you could screp it but it would cost a small fortune to dismantle it first plus the council would still have the loan to pay off at approx £2m a year. Gettign rid of it doesn’t get rid of the loan.
Madeira Terrace will host events and pop up businesses the deck will become a payable spectator space
Er …. Cancel VG3 – save £7m!
It’s so obvious to everyone …except the dogma driven morons in BHCC Transport Dept and cllr Muten
Adult Social Care seems to be the massive one to me. With something in the region of 60 different providers, all with separate contracts, that feels like an easy win to streamline.
Removing the low performing and low value ones, and creating a competitive culture amongst the ones that remain, and bringing the mainstream aspects in-house could certainly provide huge savings to the budget.
Something that might be less popular is to reduce the subsidiary given to B&H buses. It’ll result in the price of a ticket to go up however. Might be useful if used in conjunction with a Park n Ride scheme to ensure a continuation of service.
Interestingly, B&H buses have just replaced all the bus stop signage to a lovely new blue livery. Obviously the subsidy is being put to good use.
Clearly they can’t be short of a bob or two!
Does make me think do they really need the subsidy?
Even if they raise prices, if that causes a reduction in their usage, they’ll need to put them back down to remain viable as a business. Might be who backs down first situation.
What subsidy?
Other than the concessionary fares scheme – which is effect a payment for services provided – I don’t think the council pays them anything to run bus services.
its subsidises 21 bus routes without which they wouldn’t run paid from parking fees and fines
A bedroom tax for B n B’s ,hotels for visitors during summer period.
Council doesn’t have the power to levy such a tax.
Official B&Bs pay business rates and are already being squeezed by higher costs and a drop in visitor numbers due to a surge in official short-term lets and the cost of living crisis. In my street there were 11 official owner-occupied guest houses 10 years ago. Now there are just 4 and one of them is being sold.
Many of the ones that were B&Bs are now being used for emergency accommodation and the council is paying way above the market rate.
By all means tax the thousands of unofficial short-term lets and make them pay for change of use. That should bring in quite a bit.
Tourists bring in money. If you want to live in a ghost town where there are hardly any shops or restaurants then go ahead.
What subsidy to Brighton & Hove buses?
The council pays several million to freeze the fare at £2 a ticket.
That comes from a government grant not the council tax and is a national scheme.
99% sure this comes entirely from parking income which can only be spent on transport.
Concessionary fares is from parking surplus.
The £2 bus fare subsidy is government grant earmarked for it.
Pause VG3 and look at a redesign that will save £7 million of taxpayers money, (keeping the roundabout to save costs is a no brainer).
But cllr Muten has no brain!
I suggest looking at all the vanity projects and initiatives. The council should focus on what is actually important.
I do walk about – even in the summer and there are many unoccupied parking spaces. Madeira drive modifications cost 1m a year in lost income. Please do not talk about ringfenced budgets as cash that would have gone from the general fund into road maintenance can then be used for something else. Nobody is fooled by that argument any more.
Anyway now the I-360 has gone bust the chickens come home to roost…
Ask for a refund on that City clean KC report , it was a load of cobblers ! And cost hundreds of thousands £££
Nah, it was pretty much spot on, hence why so many bin men have got the sack recently. Knocking off 3 hours early by skipping streets at a time then sabotaging their own vehicles because they knew they had no legal reasons to strike.
Tbh they should have sacked everyone and started fresh.
Lol. What is your real name? David?
Get rid of all BRIGHTON council leaders and use homeless people as they seem to know all the abswers
Make the CEO work part time
She already does !
Is this meant to be a joke? The next article after the i360, that the council threw taxpayers money at, filing for administration? The councils financial practices should be investigated, and there should be prosecutions
How would that help with the shortfall? It might make you feel better, but we still owe the money even if someone is prosecuted.