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Hampshire County Council has agreed a
budget for 2008/09 that aims to make council
tax go further by making savings and diverting
resources to where the need is greatest
in order to continue providing top rated
services against a background of low Government
funding.
A council tax rise of 4.5% and a £640
million budget has been set to provide
social care, highways, libraries, waste
disposal and other essential services
(excluding schools) in 2008/09. This equates
to an extra £43 a year, or 83p a
week on the average band D property, taking
it to £999 a year.
Leader of Hampshire County Council, Councillor
Ken Thornber, said: “An increase
of 4.5% is the lowest council tax rise
we can set without jeopardising services
given, that Hampshire received just a
2% increase in Government funding, which
is well below the retail price index (RPI)
of 4.1% and compares to an average increase
in Government grant for county councils
of 5.3%.
“Despite the low grant we are setting
a council tax increase that should maintain
our policy of a council tax within the
lowest quartile of comparable county councils
in England*. For example Durham’s
council tax is £50 per annum more
than ours for Band D properties and yet
it receives three times the amount of
Government funding per head of population
than Hampshire.
“The County Council’s budget
is to increase by £27.3 million,
of which Hampshire’s council tax
payers will fund 90% at £24.5 million
and the government just £2.8 million.
The increase in the budget will allow
growth over and above inflation for adults
and children’s services, waste service,
and for recreation and heritage. The County
Council is continually looking for ways
to be more efficient and to make savings.
This year pressures of £14.6 million
are to be met by efficiency savings to
avoid cuts to frontline services.”
Adult Social Care:
Councillor Thornber said: “Adult
Social Services will receive an additional
£6.5 million to meet new demands.
But this is not enough to meet the £15.6
million pressures caused by increasing
dependency and demographic pressures,
increased commissioning costs, increased
investment in the modernisation programme,
and other costs in supporting people and
promoting independence. So the remaining
£9.1million is to be met from savings
and diverting resources from low priorities
to areas of pressure.”
Children’s Services:
Councillor Thornber said: “Children’s
Services is also under pressure due to
increase in demand for support for children
and families in the county, partly due
to the increasing complexity in the needs
of vulnerable children – Hampshire’s
percentage of children with severe difficulties
is higher than the national average. There
are also various new national initiatives
including children's centres, extended
schools for children and changes to 14-19
years education that need sustainable
resourcing after initial Government specific
grants.”
The Children’s Services budget
(excluding schools) is to receive additional
funding of £1.4 million and re-deployments
of £3 million, giving them an overall
increase of £4.4 million. This includes
a £1.4 million ‘invest to
save’ contribution to reduce the
use of fostering agencies and improve
the stability of placements.
The Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) direct
from Government will increase individual
budgets for Hampshire’s schools
by 4.5% on a per pupil basis.
Read the full article on the Hampshire
County Council site.
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