Northumberland County Council 2022-23 Budget Consultation

Overview

Northumberland County Council must set a balanced budget each financial year.

This year, as in last, Covid continues to present challenges for the council and communities across Northumberland although the easing of restrictions in the Summer has supported social and economic recovery.

Alongside our ongoing responses to Covid and, recent severe weather events, we have moved ahead to deliver our plans for economic recovery and investment in the county’s infrastructure.

The financial context for the local government sector continues to be challenging. We continue to push Government hard to support residents, local services and businesses during this time and, of course, welcome the additional funding that has been provided by Government.

So, whilst local government is operating in a period of significant financial uncertainty brought about by ongoing significant budget pressures (including in social care, special educational needs, and disability services), as well as other unfunded pressures, the council continues to focus on its key priorities set out in the corporate plan.  These include securing investment in business and jobs and supporting residents most in need of our help. 

What are we consulting on?

The Council must set a balanced budget each financial year, but we have some tough decisions to make.

A savings requirement of £9.704m million has been identified to balance the budget for 2022-23.

Our savings proposals have been and will continue to be developed using the following principles:

• Setting a balanced budget whilst maintaining modest and sustainable increases in Council Tax.
• Investing to save; recognising that one-off resources can be used to generate future savings that will pay back the investment.
• Ensuring that service and financial planning is fully aligned with the Corporate Plan.
• Continuously reviewing services in order to keep reductions to front line services to a minimum.
• Maintaining the Council’s strong financial position so that it has sufficient reserves and balances to address any future risks and unforeseen events without jeopardising key services and delivery of outcomes.
• Maintaining a commercial focus and maximising income generation while at the same time managing risk.
• Ensuring the Council can demonstrate value for money in the delivery of its priorities.

You can view a copy of the 2022-23 budget proposals here.

Our budget consultation will only focus on proposals for 2022-23, and not proposals for future years.

Why your views matter

We continue to develop plans for economic recovery and progress delivery of investment in the county – from new schools to leisure centres, road and rail.  Alongside this we will deliver on the local services our residents and business value.

We know the financial context will be challenging this year - as well as into the future - and this is where we’d like you to have your say.  

We’ve always prided ourselves as being a council that listens to its residents so that's why we’re opening a discussion on our budget proposals and asking you for your views.

It will be a genuine consultation on the challenges we face, and an opportunity for people to let us know how they’d prioritise the services we deliver.

We’ll be gathering all this information together which will help us make some key decisions for the next financial year.