Council listens to concerns in final budget proposals

Published: 23 February 2023

Derby City Council is weathering the ‘perfect storm’ of increasing energy costs and unexpectedly high inflation rates to propose a balanced budget for 2023/24.

The final proposals have been adjusted to address concerns raised by the people who live, work, and care for people in Derby. A total of 524 people responded to the recent public consultation, which was almost five times more than the 108 who took part last year. An additional consultation around specific people’s services attracted a further 212 responses.

Since the public consultation was launched in late December, the Council’s funding settlement from Government has been confirmed as being slightly higher than anticipated, providing a welcomed opportunity to address some of the areas of highest concern.

Some of the proposals which would have resulted in changes to services have been resolved, or partially changed. Libraries, museums, and children’s social care were just some of the services highlighted by the public. A consultation also took place with the city’s young people, represented by Voices In Action and the Children in Care Council, and the business sector. Expressions of ideas in running the community buildings which house non-statutory libraries also fed into the final proposals.

The proposed changes include:

• An additional investment of £186,000 for Community Managed Libraries in 2023/24, which sees the budget process adding £286,000 in total to ensure that funding is available to support the operation of the libraries as their management transfers to community and other interested groups.
• A reversal of the proposal to freeze allowances for foster carers. Instead, they will rise by 2.3%.
• A rolling budget for Derby’s Christmas offer, with £200,000 for 2023/24 and then £150,000 a year permanently from 2024/25, recognising the need to increase vibrancy in the city centre and support the local economy.
• Continuation of the Exit from Care team in children’s social care, so children and young people can continue to receive specialist support to help them stay with their families.
• The grant reduction of 10% (£60,000) to the Museums Trust will now be phased over three years which results in an additional £40,000 to the Trust next year.
• The reversal of the proposed savings to review the charging policy for replacement recycling containers.
• Prioritisation of street cleaning and the city’s public realm as savings in this area will not be reduced as much as was originally proposed. 
• More funding for neighbourhoods to support locality team working, by reinstating part of the proposed savings as one-off funding of £109,000 and building £108,000 of permanent funding back into the budget.
• £21,000 to support civic celebrations, including plans around the upcoming Coronation of King Charles III.
• An additional investment of £89,000 has been made to respite services in Adult Social Care, in recognition of the importance of respite services to those who care for close friends and family members.
• A reduction in the proposed number of redundancies required.

The Council continues to remain ambitious for Derby with its Capital Programme. 2022 saw the opening of the Moorways Sports Village, which was on time and under budget, as well as significant progress on vital city projects such as the Becketwell development, Smartparc and the refurbishment of the Market Hall.

Key areas of focus continue to be the economic regeneration of the city centre, investment in housing stock and in schools, including additional places for children and young people with special educational needs, as well as planned flood defence works.

Councillor Jonathan Smale, Cabinet Member for Finance, Digital and Culture, said: 

Getting to where we are now, and being able to propose a balanced budget, has been a huge challenge and I’m grateful to everyone who took part in this year’s consultation. We’ve listened to your comments, and we’ve been able to cushion the impact of some savings proposals.

Like local authorities across the country, we’ve had to make massive savings in a very short space of time to deal with an economic situation not of our making. We’re riding the storm better than many, but this still isn’t the budget that we wanted to set.

However, we remain ambitious for our city and there’s a lot to be optimistic about, like the regeneration of the city centre which is under way at Becketwell and in and around the Market Hall. Having less to work with makes you creative about how you use your resources. We’ve had great support from our partners in the city throughout the budget-setting process and we know that by working with them, as enablers rather than providers, we can make the most of all our strengths and achieve much more for Derby.

Democracy