A troubled council has revealed its budget for 2024/25 which sets out how it will address current financial challenge.

The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead says it is providing a "balanced budget" for the next financial year adding that despite significant financial challenges, "marks a positive step forward".

Despite the need to make significant savings and increase income, next year’s budget includes substantial increases in spending in order to meet demand, as well as investment in the infrastructure of the borough.

As a part of this, adults social care will see an additional £5.3m of spending to meet the rising costs of care and to ensure that the budget is based on the numbers of adults requiring support.

Additional investment into children’s services of £1.3m has also been proposed to meet rising demand, costs of care and legal fees.

Other proposals include £400,000 additional funding for temporary accommodation and £13m of capital investment, to be spent on critical infrastructure, including to resurface highways and fix potholes, maintaining the borough’s schools, improving energy efficiency and protecting the environment. This also includes investment to improve Windsor Leisure Centre.

The council’s financial stability remains "precarious", and delivery of the budget is dependent on a challenging programme of service transformation, together with external factors outside the council’s control.

Despite the challenges, the council remains ambitious for the borough and will be spending nearly £100m next year on delivering essential local services.

The council have acknowledged some "tough decisions" have been made.

The council is determined to avoid increasing the level of debt it currently holds and has refined and re-prioritised next year’s capital investment programme, with the vast majority of new investment funded by external grants or contributions from developers, rather than borrowing.

Currently the Royal Borough's council tax is the lowest of all comparable local authorities.

The public consultation on the council’s draft budget for 2024-25, included proposals to raise council tax by 4.99 per cent, in addition to wider income generation proposals.

This level of increase is being proposed by most councils, but our low council tax base means that, even at the maximum increase allowed, in pounds and pence this is still a lower increase than in other areas. 

Councillor Lynne Jones, Cabinet Member for Finance and Deputy Leader of the Council, says: “I would like to thank all those who took the time to respond to the public consultation on our 2024-25 draft budget.

"We are legally required to set a balanced budget, but this has been a very challenging process.

"There are some decisions that, under different circumstances, we would not have considered but unfortunately are necessary to address the ongoing effect of historical financial choices that were taken.

 

“As a Cabinet, we are fully committed to taking the actions needed to set the council on a secure financial footing.

"We are presenting a balanced budget, which is an important step forward. But the financial situation remains serious and will require hard work and continued focus.”

The proposed budget will be considered by Cabinet on Tuesday, February 20.