Telford & Wrekin Council sets budget

The council is to freeze council tax for the next two years while launching a two year £15m investment programme targeting two key concerns for local people – improving the environment and roads and also tackling the borough’s rising problem of youth unemployment.

At the same time, the budget set last night will cut a further £22 million from the Council’s ongoing budgets by 2016, reflecting continued cuts in Government grant. This follows the Council already making £51 million of savings since 2009/2010.

The budget will help deliver on the Council’s priorities of creating jobs and growth in the borough. This will improve and protect local prosperity but also generate money to help fund vital services that would otherwise have to be cut even further.

The £15 million two year one-off investment programme is possible in a time of cuts by rescheduling debt and savings being made early. This programme will fund:

The 'Pride in Our Community' initiative will see £13.6m invested in a range of measures to improve the borough’s environment, including regeneration initiatives targeting town and district centres as well as investing in improving in roads on estates and district centres.

A £1.3 million programme will tackle youth unemployment. Around one in three young people (16-24 years olds) in Telford and Wrekin are currently unemployed – much higher than the regional or national averages.

The budget received widespread support during consultation with residents with nearly 4,200 people giving their views on it. Almost two in three people said they wanted the Council to freeze council tax for the next two years, while nearly six in seven people supported the £15 million investments programme.

With two thirds of the Council’s budget spent on services to support children and vulnerable adults, the biggest budget cuts will be made in those areas by redesigning services and renegotiating contracts with care providers.

Cllr Bill McClements, cabinet member for finance and enterprise, said: “This budget sets out our stall for the next two years.

“We have some very difficult savings to deliver because of further cuts in government funding. As the services for children and vulnerable adults account for such a large part of our budget, it is inevitable that these services are affected and we will seek to be as careful as we can in making the savings we need to make.

“However, over the next two years we will positively address two key areas that residents tell us are very important to them – creating greater pride in our borough by improving roads and the environment and tackling youth unemployment to secure a brighter future for the next generation of this borough.

“Both are key in our plans to ensure that Telford and Wrekin remains a place that people want to come to, where there is growth and where businesses thrive.

“People don’t want to just hear about the negatives and we at Telford & Wrekin are determined to take a positive approach because we are in so many ways a thriving and vibrant place.

“At a time when many councils can only talking about what cuts they will make, we are able to talk about taking such very positive steps to improve our borough for the future.”