Council tax to rise as extra income from second homes used to plug cut in rural services grant
County Councillors will vote on this year's budget later today
More money to repair Devon's roads - and help the homeless and vulnerable children- is expected to be approved later, along with 4.99 per cent rise in council tax.
The county council's setting this year's budget at a meeting from 2pm - after also having to find an extra £10-million because of a cut from Government to Devon's rural services support grant.
At Devon County Council’s cabinet meeting last week Cllr Phil Twiss noted that income from second homes helped replace more than £10 million previously coming from the rural services delivery grant, which the government cut in December.
Cllr Twiss added that the county had received the worst financial settlement from central government of the 21 county councils.
“It is not a nice statistic, and we are well below the national average,” he said.
“We are an overwhelmingly rural county and so there are additional costs to delivering services, so it is particularly disappointing that the government has removed the rural services grant.”
"Our postbags regularly include complaints from residents about potholes on our roads.
"It is important that when there is some extra money available to do more to tackle the problem it should go to that. I am delighted that the budget now includes an additional £4 million to highways to help address this issue."
He said the county's leaders had held formal consultation meetings with business, the trade unions and the voluntary sector and had listened to Devon's scrutiny committees and district council colleagues.
"We recognise the work that district councils, charities and other organisations do to make life a little easier for some of the homeless people in Devon and I am delighted that an extra £500,000 has been allocated for the homelessness budget, taking the budget to £1 million," he said.
“There will also be £5 million for our children’s services."
Some of this money will support Devon's ambition for vulnerable children to be cared for closer to their families and communities through a range of services.
Mr Twiss continued: "The backdrop to this budget is the focus on Devon County Council being a strong and sustainable council with better outcomes at lower cost while living within our means against a backdrop of rising demand and pressure on the services we provide.
"That means a continued focus on the young, the old and the vulnerable.
"Local government nationally is not in a very good place at all, with surges in demand across all services and insufficient financial resources to support the work it does for residents.
“Given these highly challenging circumstances, this is a realistic and good budget for the people of Devon.”