Bracknell Forest Council budget plans reveal £2.5 million black hole

Draft budget details have been revealed for the 2020/2021 financial year with reports showing a black hole in the authority’s finances.

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The council is expected to spend £81.7 million on its revenue budget next year, which includes forking out for services such as social care support, staff salaries and bin collections.

But financial chiefs are only anticipating £79.2 million of income, meaning BFC needs to find another £2.5 million to balance its budget as this is a legal requirement.

To do that, bosses have three options to choose from:

• Raising council tax by up to four per cent

• Take money from its reserves, which is a pot of funds usually saved for emergency situations

• Identify cuts to services

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Reports suggest £4.6 million of savings from council services are already planned, with most of this coming from social care and non-departmental reductions in spending.

But another £6.9 million of revenue expenditure is expected in addition to £74.5 million of money which is already committed to spending.

This is due to a huge increase in demand for social care support, with almost all of BFC’s extra expenditure for 2020/2021 coming from this department.

Council tax is expected to bring in £59.4 million of income for the council next year but for each one per cent increase, another £600,000 could be generated for the authority.

This means a council tax increase of up to four per cent could see another £2.4 million head BFC’s way.

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More than £2 million of the council’s reserves is planned to be used to address social care spending demand in this current financial year, meaning BFC expects to be left with £6.5 million in reserve money by March 2020.

If bosses choose to use the council’s reserves to plug the £2.5 million funding gap identified for next year, this would mean BFC is left with £4 million for emergency situations.

The BFC budget report highlighted the minimum balance the council should have in its reserves is £4 million.

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Draft plans for the capital budget, which is money used for building or maintaining council-owned properties and sites, show £4.8 million of proposed spending from BFC, with another £14 million coming from developers contributions, government grants, and more.

Bracknell Forest Council’s top team is expected to approve a consultation on the draft budget plans at a meeting on Tuesday, December 17.

Should councillors go ahead with the consultation, residents can submit their views on the proposals from Wednesday, December 18 to Tuesday, January 28.

The executive will consider the comments made before councillors from all parties vote on the final budget in late February next year.