Protecting services as budget is set for coming year

Thursday, 20 February 2025 09:25

By David Murphy

Bury Council has set a budget for 2025/26 which aims to protect public services while meeting major ongoing funding challenges.

The council had been forecasting a financial gap of £19.5m for the next financial year, but this has been reduced to £5.8m.

This has been through a better than expected funding settlement from the Government, alongside a number of one-off grants.

The council has also made an extensive list of savings, from smarter commissioning and contract management to reducing the cost of statutory care provision, increasing income through fees and charges, and staffing efficiencies. It is proposing to use reserves to plug the remaining gap.

Councillor Sean Thorpe, cabinet member for finance, said: “Every year we face a tremendous challenge to set a balanced budget while still providing the vital public services that people want and need.

“We received an extra £6 million from the Government this year, which, with the addition of other external grants, means our financial position is not as bad as we originally feared.

“However, the underlying problem has not gone away. Bury still receives far less than other councils for our size, and we are having to cope with ever increasing demand for services – particularly in social care, as our population gets older.

“Without a fundamental review of the way local government is financed, we will continue to face huge budget pressures year on year. We will continue to lobby the Government to change the system so that Bury gets a fairer deal.”

In setting the budget last night (Wed 19 Feb), members agreed to increase the level of Council Tax by 2.99% for general council services, plus 2% reserved specifically for adult social care.

The council’s annual budget for non-schools spending is £238 million.

Adult social care is the biggest single item of expenditure, taking up £82 million (35%) of the council’s budget. This is followed by children’s social care, which accounts for £65 million (27%).

After that, the three highest specific areas of spend are bins/waste/recycling at nearly £19 million (8%), the transport levy (£12m, or 5%), and public health (£11m, or 5%).

Of the total Council Tax bill, Bury Council receives approximately 85% of the money raised. The remainder goes to pay for the fire service and the police/GM Mayor.

The council also agreed last night to increase council house rents by an average of 2.7%. This is line with Government rules, which limit the rise to the rate of inflation plus 1%.

Councillor Eamonn O’Brien, leader of the council, said: “A decade of so-called austerity has stripped more than £100 million from our budgets, and we cannot turn this round in just one year.

“Despite our financial challenges, we are still carrying out the daily tasks that people expect of us – caring for our elderly and vulnerable, improving opportunities for our young people, emptying the bins and spending £30 million improving our roads.

“And we are looking to the future too, as residents can see with all the regeneration work going on to transform our town centres.”