Helston: How much you could be paying in council tax next year

Council tax bills in Cornwall are expected to rise by a minimum of 2.99% under budget proposals being considered by Cornwall Council.

The budget plans for 2022/23 have been published for the first time ahead of a meeting of the council's Cabinet next week to consider the proposals.

In them it is proposed that Cornwall Council's share of council tax bills should increase by 2.99% – this would include a 1.99% general increase and an extra 1% to fund adult social care services.

If approved it would mean that a Band D property would pay an extra 96p a week for Cornwall Council services.

Final council tax bills will also include charges for Devon and Cornwall Police and for town or parish councils so the total rise will be higher than 2.99%.

In the draft budget proposals report Cornwall Council highlights that it is protecting council tax support which is provided for those struggling to pay their bills which includes support for care leavers up to the age of 25.

As well as the indications for council tax bills the budget proposals also detail some of the savings which the council will have to make to balance its books in 2022/23.

The council says that it will need to make savings of £55million in the next financial year and has so far identified £53.2m of savings which could be achieved. The council said that further work would be done to close the £1.8m gap.

A large proportion of these savings is set to be made in cutting the number of buildings the council owns and operates as well as cutting its workforce.

Council leader Linda Taylor had previously announced that the council would need to cut its staff spending by around £18m and said they would do this with a recruitment freeze, deleting vacant posts and voluntary redundancies. However, it has also been warned that compulsory redundancies "will be unavoidable".

The new budget report explains that 410 jobs will be cut by March 2022 and says that while 200 of these will be removed through not filling vacant posts the other 210 will be achieved with voluntary or compulsory redundancies.

Formal consultation with unions on the proposed job cuts started on November 23 and the report says that a package of support is available for affected staff.

However whilst there are a number of savings required the council has indicated that it will also be looking to invest and improve services.

The council wants to increase spending on adult care services by £45.5m and is also proposing spending £93m to provide 550 more school places and to repair school buildings.

In addition, the council has more than £1billion of capital investment projects lined up and aims to invest £29m in providing warm, dry, and energy efficient homes.

And the proposals include spending £54m on improving technology and the council's estate of buildings and offices.

At a meeting of full council, yesterday Deputy Leader David Harris was asked what the single biggest pressure on the budget was and he was clear that it was adult social care.

He explained that the department was currently forecasting an overspend of £30m for the current year, although he explained that £15m of that was "ongoing covid-19 activity" and that the "vast majority" would be covered by government grants.

The draft budget proposals will go to an extraordinary meeting of the Cabinet on Wednesday (December 8th) when councillors will be asked to approve them for consideration by the council's overview and scrutiny committees and for public consultation.

Final decisions on the budget setting and council tax levels will be made in the new year.

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