Today at a meeting of Cabinet, Cumbria County Council launched its annual budget consultation.
The council is seeking views from its residents on a 1.99% council tax increase. This together with the 2% Adult Social Care Precept brings the total proposed council tax increase, for Cumbria County Council’s share of the council tax, to 3.99%.
A 3.99% increase on a Band D Property is £55.28 per year – that’s £1.06 per week.
Cumbria County Council provides more than 600 services to a population of approximately 500,000. From gritting roads to looking after vulnerable people, hundreds of council services are accessed every single day.
Every year there is also increasing demand on our services, especially care services.
This year the council has an additional £6million of savings to find and this is on top of the £272million that it has saved over the last 9 years. It has found these significant savings through staff reductions, being more efficient, implementing new contracts for services, good financial management and seeking new commercial opportunities.
To meet the challenges ahead it will continue to drive forward its transformation agenda – which means continuing to work in new ways and making difficult choices about service delivery based on what can be afforded within the available resources.
The consultation runs from Thursday 14 November 2019 to Monday 6 January 2020 and is now available at cumbria.gov.uk/budgetconsultation.
Feedback from the public consultation will be considered by Cabinet and then go to Full Council with recommendations in February 2020 alongside the Budget and Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP) for 2020-2025.
