Westmorland and Furnes Council’s cabinet will meet on Tuesday in Kendal to approve to recommend the council raises its share of the council tax by 4.99% from April with the police and fire precepts also set to rise plus parish precepts that are added to form the final council tax bill sent to household.
Westmorland and Furness Council has outlined its draft budget proposals for the 2025/26 financial year which sets out how the Liberal Democrat led authority will achieve a balanced budget using the council tax rise to help fund the councils service deliver and projects across the district.
A report prepared for the cabinet on the draft budget proposals says the council has identified £10.95 million in savings for the upcoming financial year but stresses there will be no reduction to frontline services.
The cabinet will be asked to consider the responses received to the council’s public consultation on the budget and council tax increase as part of the meeting on Tuesday with 69.3% of responses saying they disagreed with the proposal to increase in council tax.
Westmorland and Furness Council is required as part of its decision making process for its budget and council tax levels for 2025/2026 to conducted a public consultation to gather feedback on the proposals to increase the rate of council tax for 2025/26 by 2.99% and implement a 2% rise for the Adult Social Care precept – making a total increase of 4.99% and the councils plans to apply an inflationary uplift of 1.7% on the council’s discretionary fees and charges.
The council consultation ran between 17th December 2024 and 17th January 2025 and alongside members of the public seven organisations also responded with only one of the organisations objecting to the council tax increase.
Putting Cumbria First objected to the council’s proposals to increase the council tax with other organisations including the Citizens Advice Bureau, Claife Parish Council and the GMB Union agreeing with the councils plans to increase council tax for households.
A report to the cabinet outlines the response by Putting Cumbria First that said “The council should cut all non-essential projects to reduce its budget costs and remove the increased burden on households across the district. The council has yet to fully publish its monthly spending or provide for public inspection its annual accounts.”
“The ongoing wasting of millions on projects that are not core council services at the expense of council taxpayers is unacceptable and fails to show best value for the public purse.”
“Apply a 2% increase to pay for Adult Social Care Disagree The council has failed to show in detail why it needs this increased amount and what steps to reduce costs have been taken.”
“Apply an average inflationary uplift of 1.7% on discretionary fees and charges Disagree The council must show how it’s delivering oversight and responsible budgeting and spending of public money before it moves to demand more from the residents across the district. A Quick Look at the spending reports that have after lobbying been made available shows some very concerning levels of out of control spending accounting for millions in a very short period of time an example of this is £1.7million spend on school procurement cards between April and July 2024 with some very large and questionable amounts and spends listed. Other such issues include the councils average monthly spend on travelodge accommodation of with an average £62,000 monthly spend by the council on government procurement cards.”
The GMB union while agreeing with the increase in general council tax by the council said that the “council should Promotion of council tax reductions for example one person living in a house should happen with your staff team as well as the community”.
Some of the comments made by members of the public opposed to the Council Tax increase included the following points:
The increase is too high given affordability and cost of living pressures
The quality of services needs to improve.
The council should make internal savings and spend money more wisely
(including references to Voreda House, officer salaries and councilor
allowances).
Council tax increases are unfair as certain localities do not benefit from
council funding/projects or have access to all services.
Must enable essential service to continue
Local Government Reorganisation in Cumbria should have brought savings
and greater efficiency, not council tax increases.
It is not clear if other income sources have been considered
Paying more than some other localities
Should publish first how it will be spent
The cabinet members will be asked on Tuesday at their meeting at Kendal Town Hall to recommend to full council at the meeting on the 27th February to approve an overall revenue budget for 2025/26 of £301.295m to deliver the Council’s services and ambition with the 4.99% council tax increase for the council share of the council tax bill paid by households from April.
Then select "Add to Home Screen"
