Budget proposals to meet challenges and invest in future of West Suffolk

28 Jan 2025

West Suffolk Council budget draft proposals

Proposals for a £78 million budget to invest in delivering services and initiatives that make a real difference to the lives, health and prosperity of West Suffolk are due to be debated.

West Suffolk Cabinet will meet on Tuesday, 4 February to discuss proposals to deliver a balanced budget for 2025/2026 while meeting national and local financial pressures.

The proposals include investing in delivering services and initiatives that make a real difference to the lives, health and prosperity of West Suffolk communities and businesses.

This includes investing in priorities such as delivering vital services such as housing, reducing homelessness, emptying bins, better recycling facilities and improving health such as parks and leisure centres while protecting the environment. Also, the budget supports investing in initiatives that create jobs, help businesses, develop and support local town centres. markets and rural areas to encourage civic pride. But the proposals will also help the most vulnerable and those struggling financially.

Building on the authority’s strong financial foundations, as highlighted by the Local Government Association’s independent Corporate Peer Review, the Council aims to stretch the West Suffolk pound to deliver value for money and high quality services,

Through the Council’s continued investment in property, and green energy, such as Solar for Business, which secures an annual income of over £10 million and boosts jobs the authority has been able to protect services.

The Council is also on track to deliver its commitment for £1 million in savings by March 2026, the vast majority having already been achieved.

In their funding calculations the Government expects councils to increase Council Tax to help meet rising costs. Which means for less than £17 a month for a band D property the council is regularly emptying a household’s bins and disposing of the rubbish; providing maintained parks to enjoy; putting on markets and supporting thriving town centres; improving leisure centres to help people swim in and stay healthy, preventing people from becoming homeless, backing businesses to provide jobs and improve the economy; planning new developments as well as backing hundreds of community groups.

The budget proposes for West Suffolk’s proportion of the Council Tax a rise of 11p a week (£5.85 a year increase) to £203.67 for the average Band D property per year. Which works out for 70 per cent of properties are band A to C and so will pay less. West Suffolk will give 100 per cent discount to those most struggling. West Suffolk only gets 11 per cent of the total Council Tax bill.

In addition, the proposals aim to continue to make Council Tax go further – by ensuring 80 per cent of the true cost of services is found elsewhere rather than being a burden on Council Tax. it costs taxpayers 20 per cent of the true cost of collecting their bins and other services. 

Investments in the Council priorities include:

Affordable, available and decent homes

  • £0.4 million towards an Affordable Housing Grant facility and use of £1.2 million in 2025 to 2026 (from the previously agreed £14.25 million investment facility) for Barley Homes – helping to deliver homes, including those that are affordable and bring in income to support services.

Environmental resilience

  • Introduction of Simpler Recycling in 2025 to 2026 with approximately £2.7 million of (government funded) resource to improve recycling levels and deliver on national requirements.
  • Investment of £1.3 million in 2025 to 26 towards the Community Energy and Net Zero plan (from the existing £10.2 million fund) to deliver environmentally friendly initiatives within communities.
  • £0.6 million in the year towards introducing Net Zero measures in the Council’s property asset portfolio to reduce impact on climate change and reduce costs (from the existing £4.2 million fund).
  • £3.0 million annual costs to maintain West Suffolk’s award-winning parks and open spaces.

Sustainable growth

  • Continued investment (£6 million in 2025 to 26 of a previously agreed £12m) in our commercial asset portfolio to improve income to support services and wider benefits for communities as well as businesses.
  • An investment of £3 million in the year (of an agreed project budget of £15.1 million) towards the AME units on Suffolk Business Park to support jobs in a growing area.
  • £300,000 to support the Market development plan supporting town centres and businesses.

Thriving communities

  • £0.6 million funding for Thriving Communities grants and locality funding targeted at supporting community groups and projects.
  • £0.4 million investment towards keeping our playing fields and play areas up to date.
  • Planned delivery of previously agreed £12.4 million investment to improve and provide leisure facilities including Bury St Edmunds and Newmarket (St Felix)

Getting the essentials right

  • Ongoing £2.6 million to ensure grounds maintained and grass cut.
  • Ongoing £5.0 million for waste collection (Black & Blue Bins)
  • £1.1 million towards refreshing our vehicle fleet and maintaining service delivery.

As part of regular review of costs, the council will look at increases to some fees and charges so tax payers are not left out of pocket, following the user pays principle. This includes looking at charges such as the 20p admin charge currently paid by the Council for motorists who use the parking Ringo App which costs West Suffolk taxpayers around £200,000 a year. A new national scheme is being proposed which will replace all individual local scheme and will also be based on the principle that the cost is borne by the user. The Council is therefore looking to implement that change from April 2025 in anticipation.

Cllr Diane Hind, Cabinet Member for West Suffolk Council, said: “These budget proposals are an investment in the future of West Suffolk, the health and wellbeing of our local communities, businesses and the environment. Despite serious pressures to our budget and all public services these proposals builds on our strong financial foundations to deliver a balanced budget for 2025/ 2026. It invests in services and initiatives that make a real difference to people’s lives, improves our town centres and supports economic growth as well as delivering projects that helps the most vulnerable and prevents people from becoming homeless. We are following the Governments guidance on putting up Council Tax to meet the funding gap, by £5.85 in total  for an average Band property. However, the Council is making that stretch by using income from investments and green energy to cover 80 per cent of the real cost of services. We understand that for some even this is too much which is why for the third year we have a 100 per cent discount on Council Tax for those struggling the most. These budget proposals support the most vulnerable, are financially sound and importantly invest in the prosperity of our communities, businesses and West Suffolk as a whole.”

The recommendations from Cabinet will then go to full Council to make the final decision.


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