Wiltshire Council planned tax increase lower than maximum allowed
The authority's also budgeting for a rise in spending on services
Council tax bills in Wiltshire look set to rise by less than the maximum allowed this year - but will still be going up by 4.5%.
The authority's Budget for 2025/26 has been put together, including a 2.5% increase in basic council tax, and a 2% adult social care levy too.
That would work out as a £1,886.99 annual charge for an average Band D property - or £1.56 per week.
Some other charges could also increase across Wiltshire Council's services to increase their revenue and bridge a funding gap - such as across leisure and planning, and a rise for green bin garden waste collections to £75 a year.
The authority's looking to make savings in the next financial year totalling £15.4 million - after seeing a drop in Government funding to the tune of £8 million.
£14.2 million of savings had been identified in the last budget, but has been revised down to £9 million, with another £6.4 million in new savings identified.
It is expected the Council won't need to dip into its reserves across the year though.
Increase in spending on services
Despite the need for savings, Wiltshire Council's planning a £37 million increase in their spending on services across the board.
The most significant areas of spend will be:
• Adult services - £194m
• Families and children - £75m
• Highways and transport – £43.4m
• Environment (including waste) - £49.5m
• Education and skills - £38.08m
Around £253 million is also budgeted to be spent by the Council on capital projects during the year.
They could change, due to time pressures or inflationary issues, but at the moment include:
• Council house building and stock refurbishment – £40.5m
• SEND provision including Silverwood school – £28.6m
• Structural maintenance and bridges – £16.2m
• Refurbishment of council housing stock – £15.3m
• Trowbridge leisure centre - £14m (with more budgeted for the next two years)
• A350 Chippenham bypass phases 4 & 5 – £13.9m
• Highways investment plan– £10.4m
• Schools' maintenance and modernisation – £8.1m
• Environmental and waste projects - £8.1m
• Wiltshire Ultrafast Broadband and Wiltshire Online – £1.1m
Cllr Richard Clewer, Leader of Wiltshire Council, said: “Our preventative long-term approach and investing time and resources into our key services ensures that we are on a firm footing as a council, allowing us to continue to be ambitious while still acutely aware of the challenges we face.
“The budget gets trickier to set every year, but we have learned to be as self-reliant as possible and that’s perhaps where some other local authorities have fallen short. Councils throughout the country are dipping into their reserves to support their budgets, but we are not in that position. This is despite reduced grant funding from government and increasing costs.
“Over the last year we have significantly invested in the likes of our highways, leisure services, adult and children social care, and taken a zero-tolerance stance on enforcement breaches – and we are really starting to see a return on that positive approach.
“We are still having to make tough decisions, such as proposing to increase council tax, but we don’t need to charge taxpayers more than is necessary. National funding, particularly support for rural councils like ours, continues to be so precarious and unpredictable so we feel our approach to council tax setting is sensible and responsible.
“It’s important to us get the absolute most out of every penny we spend as we take our responsibility of being publicly funded very seriously, but I feel the proposals we are putting forward clearly demonstrate an ambitious council as well as a prudent one, with the needs of our residents, communities and business right at the heart of every decision we make.”
No final decisions on the proposals have been made, and prior to being discussed and debated at Full Council on 25th February, they will be scrutinised by various groups including members, group leaders, trade union representatives and various committees and task groups.
Wiltshire Council Leader Richard Clewer and Cabinet Member for Finance Cllr Nick Botterill will be hosting a public webinar on 4th February from 6.00pm to talk through the proposals in more detail.