Council tax rise for St Helens as pressures in social care mount

Councillors approved the Medium-Term Financial Plan and Revenue Budget for 2024/25.

Essential services, which residents depend on, such as adult and children’s social care, will be funded from the revenue budget, which includes funding from council tax.

Council tax rise

Overall the council tax will increase by 4.99 per cent, including a 2 per cent social care precept to help meet the rising demands from these services alongside 2.99 per cent general rise.

The council, which has warned of its challenging financial position for funding day-to-day services, says a budget gap is forecast to grow to £14.1m over the next three years.

READ MORE: Newton-le-Willows to receive £20m investment from Government

To underline the amount of money that goes into adult and children’s social care, the local authority spelt out that the combined spending will be more than £135m.

However, separate to the revenue budget,  the council says there will be what it has described as the "largest capital investment ever made in the borough".

Capital funding is separate from revenue and cannot be spent on day-to-day services.

The capital investment includes the transformational plans for St Helens and Earlestown town centres and is ultimately designed to deliver economic growth across the borough, which would bring increases from business rates retained by the council and growth in the number of ratepayers.

There will also be support to children’s services through Family Hubs improvement schemes at schools across the borough including Newton-le-Willows, Thatto Heath, Sutton and Eccleston among others.

There will also be investment in highways including the final works on the Parkside Link Road.

Plan to build long-term growth

In a statement, Councillor Martin Bond, cabinet member for corporate cervices, said: “Our Medium-Term Financial Plan sets out our plans that will help us to meet the challenges of supporting growth in our borough with a focus on using capital funding to support transformational projects that will build growth long term through investing in our town centres and key projects such as Parkside.

Councillor Martin Bond

"We will also be investing in schools and children’s services to provide young people with the best start in life.

“Despite this vital investment we still face challenges with our budget gap forecast to grow to £14.1m over the next three years.

"It means that it will impact on our Revenue Budget, which is the pot of money we pay for the day-to-day services residents rely on.

"While it means we have to evaluate how we can deliver these vital services, which might mean some difficult decisions, there will still be investment like £8.9m on maintaining the borough’s 484-mile road network, £2m on street cleaning, £2.6m on looking after our parks and open spaces.

“When you consider though the vast majority of this Revenue Budget will go towards supporting adult and children’s social services, spending will reach £67.9m and £67.8m each respectively, it puts into stark light the challenges we face to support the most vulnerable people in our society.

"We know times are tough for households and we have a package in place to support people who may be struggling to meet their bills.

"But the increase in Council Tax will help towards meeting the increased costs we continue to see, particularly in areas like social care placements.”