To achieve that balanced budget while maintaining services, the
Council continues to undertake activities outlined in the Financial
Strategy set in 2016, which includes becoming a more commercial
organisation and investing in projects that will provide essential
income to pay for these services.
The District Executive committee has also agreed to recommend to
increase Council Tax by 2.85% (or £4.63 a year from the previous
year for an average Band D property), which sits comfortably below
the 2.99% maximum allowed rate set by Central Government before a
referendum has to be held.
The increase in Council Tax will see an average Band D property
pay £167.11 this year for District Council services. This includes
£1.85 which is raised on behalf of the Somerset Rivers Authority
each year. It goes directly to the authority and enables it to
implement and fund its 20-year flood action plan for the
county.
Why is Council Tax being increased?
Funding from Central Government has been steadily reducing since
the end of the last decade. Since 2010, SSDC has sustained a 70 per
cent reduction in its Government grant funding. With this in mind,
we continue to try and raise funds to enable us to deliver for our
communities and not cut the vital services that our communities
need, such as road sweeping, the Homefinder social housing service,
planning and much more. Visit www.southsomerset.gov.uk
to explore what SSDC has to offer.
What will funds raised in South Somerset pay for?
Additional funds will allow SSDC to not only maintain services,
but to continue to provide excellent additional value for residents
including free school holiday Playdays, waste and recycling
collections, leisure, arts and entertainment services including
swimming facilities at Wincanton and Yeovil, The Octagon Theatre
and Westlands.
Regeneration schemes in Yeovil and Chard will see funds raised
through business rates (£1.4m) and new homes bonus grant held in
reserve (£2.5m) directed to help develop these key strategic town
centres and help them to thrive through planned regeneration
projects.
We also propose to increase our investment in services and
assets by £1.7m within the capital programme, including £1.25m in
our leisure, play and recreation facilities and £180,000 in grants
to improve standards of housing available in the private rented
sector.
In October 2018, we told you about
15 things we were proud of delivering in the past 18
months for our communities. Without income raised
through revenue streams such as Council Tax, we wouldn't be able to
provide many of these services or activities or to a high
standard.
What is the Council doing about the Government funding
cuts?
South Somerset District Council has made it clear that it does
not want to cut services to the public, but invest in the future
through its Transformation.
Our ambitious Transformation programme puts our customers first
and helps to build a Council of the future that is modern, flexible
and efficient has already seen many benefits, with new ways of
interacting with the Council through redesigned services starting
to come into place in the coming months. The Transformation
programme promises to deliver ongoing financial savings of £2.5m
per year, which goes a long way towards ensuring services to our
communities are protected and remain affordable despite the
significant pressure on local government budgets.
Our aim for Transformation is to build a council that works as
one team and is ambitious for South Somerset and the communities we
serve. To do this we will be a modern and efficient organisation
that is:
- Great to work for
- Excellent to work with
- Leading the way in local government
- And everything we do is focussed on delivering for our
communities
What this means for our services and customers is we will:
- Get more customers online and tackle more issues at the first
point of contact
- Have 24/7 online access for our customers
- Continue to ensure that customers receive face to face help if
they need it, at a place and time convenient to them
- To develop a flexible workforce and create a new council
structure based on customer needs.
Learn more about Transformation
here.
Councillor Val Keitch, Leader at South Somerset District
Council, said: "We recognise the importance of agreeing a balanced
budget where we can continue to provide services for residents,
visitors and businesses.
"This recommendation to Full Council later this month puts
forward a sound case to ensure that we can be a leading Council
going into the future that continues to provide vital services to
those who need them, but also that we make our town centres
attractive for visitors and businesses. We will continue to do our
best to ensure that any Council Tax increase is kept to a minimum
and that resident's use and enjoy the services that we
provide".
Councillor Peter Seib, portfolio holder for Finance at South
Somerset District Council, added: "Agreeing a balanced budget for
2019/20 is a fantastic achievement for the District Council, but
we've also been able to confirm a large amount of funding for the
major regeneration projects in Chard and Yeovil, we've stepped in
to keep Citizens Advice South Somerset going, we've raised a new
hostel service to address rough sleeping and we have also protected
all of our services from cuts.
"Not only has South Somerset kept its element of Council Tax to
about three quarters of the cost of a BT line rental or half a
basic Sky subscription, but we've delivered the lowest percentage
tax in Somerset over the last four years".