Priority 4: value for money
Residents rightly expect us to spend public money carefully and to protect the services they rely on most.
Over the next four years this challenge is at its most acute, as the council expects to have over £120 million less than we need.
We will meet that challenge by transforming services and making efficiencies, with council tax increases as a last resort.
We will work hard to keep council tax low and set a balanced budget every year without using reserves to pay for day-to-day services.
What we will continue and improve
We will:
- keep council tax low
- set a balanced budget each year, avoiding funding day-to-day services from reserves or borrowing for speculative capital schemes
- take tough decisions to do less and strip out services where need or demand has evolved since its introduction
- tackle the cost of temporary accommodation and social care placements
What we commit to
We will:
- Balance the need to increase income from commercial property and advertising to meet the financial challenge, while preserving the character of the borough
- Provide better-value care placements for children in care and care leavers
- Run fewer but better-used buildings, in the places that matter to local people
- Introduce modern, secure systems and increase automation to reduce the cost of running the council and free staff time for work with residents and improve cybersecurity throughout the organisation in light of the cyber-attack
How we will show success
The full set of indicators and targets sitting behind these measures will be published in our performance framework.
This will include:
- maintain or improve the proportion of residents who feel the council provides value for money (2026 Resident Survey baseline of 80%)
- reduction in average temporary accommodation placement costs
- increase in income from the commercial property portfolio and advertising
- running cost of the operational estate falling by 2030