Chorley Council budget 2023: black hole on the horizon pushes council tax up - but ‘ambitous’ investments in the borough will continue

That was the warning from the authority’s deputy leader who said that ongoing uncertainty about government funding made it “impossible” for local authorities to plan beyond a year in advance.

Speaking during the meeting at which the Labour-run council set its budget for 2023/24, Peter Wilson said that those predictions that the town hall was currently able to make about its financial prospects had forced it to opt to increase council tax by 1.99 percent from April. That is less than the three percent maximum permitted this year without triggering a local referendum on the issue.

However, the opposition Conservative group called for a council tax freeze and accused the ruling party of incompetence and wasting money by trying to “save the world” with local climate change initiatives that were not supported by residents.

But Cllr Wilson, who is also the cabinet member for resources, insisted that the "difficult decision" to impose a rise this year was necessary - not least because of the cumulative impact on the council’s coffers in future years of any one-off freeze implemented for 12 months. A nationwide pay settlement reached with local authority staff will also add £400,000 to Chorley’s expected wage bill increase in the coming year – none of which will attract any extra government funding.

“We always aim to be ambitious [and] we know that we have to have a balance of savings, improvements in the way we work and increasing revenue streams. [Because] without those, we would be standing here talking about…cuts to services and…staff, [which] we don't want to make and we will not make.

“We said when we came to power, we will not be here to manage decline - we have not done that in the last 10 years; we have grown, succeeded and been ambitious. Despite the constraints placed upon us, we will continue to be ambitious, support the most vulnerable, provide jobs [and] we will continue to make Chorley a great place to live, work and visit,” Cllr Wilson pledged.

He also batted away concerns over the level of council borrowing after Tory opposition member Aidy Riggott - who represents Buckshaw and Whittle - noted that the authority would this year be spending 17 percent of its funding on meeting debt repayments. Budget papers also show that the annual cost of borrowing for the council is set to rise from £3.7m in 2023/24 to £4.6m in two years’ time.

Cllr Wilson said that debt was only ever taken on “for a purpose“ and councillors were advised that the authority’s major investments in recent years were all generating an income for the council - even after repayments were made on the loans required to fund them.

The cash being brought into the town hall from those projects includes £847,000 a year from the Market Walk Shopping Centre and £455,000 from the Logistics House site - the former TVS building - in Buckshaw Village, an investment which is eventually expected to yield a £1m per year return on the council’s £33m purchase back in 2019.

With the books balanced for 2023/24 - and in spite of the funding uncertainty on the horizon - this year’s budget also includes around £4.5m worth of spending plans for the financial year starting in April. These include £200,000 for sprucing up neighbourhoods, £400,000 to improve the connectivity of rural businesses and £2.8m for affordable homes and adaptation grants.

Under the approved Labour budget, Chorley Council’s share of the council tax bill on a Band D property will be £181, the second-lowest of Lancashire’s dozen districts. That figure excludes parish council charges, a borough “special expenses” fee, levied for grass cutting, and the Lancashire County Council, police and fire elements of the total bill.

However, Conservative opposition finance spokesperson Sam Chapman suggested that the council was frittering money away on schemes that did not have public support. He said that a consultation into this year’s budget proposals had come back with three key messages: “don’t raise the council tax, don't spend it on affordable housing and don't spend so much on climate change”.

Cllr Chapman noted that £147,000 of the authority’s climate change reserve was unallocated as of last September - after £260,000 had been added to it at last year’s budget - and that the total pot was expected to reach £615,000 by the end of March.

He also took issue with how some of the fund was being spent - including on projects such as “green bus shelters”, which he claimed had almost no carbon reduction potential.

“In the place of a regular roof they basically have a massive plant pot which is designed to grow wildflowers…and to attract insects - particularly pollinators.

“So when you want to catch a bus, you're invited to stand or sit underneath a shelter which is literally designed to be covered in creepy crawlies - and whilst you’re there you can calculate your chances of being attacked by a swarm of killer bees. I suspect this might not encourage people to use public transport,” Cllr Chapman said.

He criticised the council’s competence over previous non-payment of some energy bills and said that the authority should “get your own house in order before taxing other people’s”.

To that end, the Tories suggested amendments to the Labour budget that would have frozen council tax at its current level - along with the historical special expenses charge applied in some areas - with the combined £161,000 cost of doing so to be met by taking the same amount out of the climate change reserve.

Independent councillor James Nevett - who left the Labour group last year - said that the green bus shelter plan was about increasing biodiversity, not carbon reduction. He added that responses to the budget consultation had been so limited that the number of people in the borough who were, in Cllr Chapman’s analysis, against climate change and affordable housing policies amounted to fewer than ten.

Meanwhile, Labour’s Mark Clifford, who has environmental and green space responsibilities within the ruling group, accused the Tories of not “having a green bone” in their bodies and suggested that borough Conservatives who also sat on the county council were hypocritical for pushing for a council tax freeze in Chorley, but supporting a four percent hike at County Hall, where their party is in control.

Amidst fears expressed over future central government funding arrangements for local authorities, former Conservative group leader Martin Boardman noted that Chorley’s £15.8m budget for 2023/24 was still made up of £9.5m in government grants.

However, Cllr Wilson said that the long-delayed “fair funding review” of local authority finance - and the government’s unwillingness to provide details of its intentions for council grants beyond a 12-month timeframe - meant that Chorley could not comfortably rely on the money that may ultimately be made available to it. He added that cash increases in government funding this year did not make up for previous cuts and warned that the forecast deficit in two years’ time is a “significant hurdle”.

Council leader Alistair Bradley said that, against that backdrop of uncertainty and lack of government investment, it was incumbent upon the borough to “put a finger in the dyke” on behalf of its residents.

HOW’S THE MONEY BEING SPENT?

£2.8m - affordable homes and adaptation grants

£441k - investment in bus shelters (through to 2025/26)

£400k -improving rural business connectivity

£100k - improving home energy efficiency

£240k - additional support for businesses

£200k - environmental improvements and activity to clean up neighbourhoods

£150k - further improvements to Astley Hall

£120k - more support for families and young people to access ‘best start in life’ services

£80k - energy improvement measures for businesses

£50k - investigating flexible housing solutions to meet the needs of all communities

£50k - additional electric vehicle charging points

£35k - planting more trees tod establish green corridors

£15k - health and wellbeing activities

£10k - launching a skills and jobs programme for local residents

Source: Chorley Council investment priorities 2023/24

HOW IS MONEY BEING SAVED AND GENERATED?

In an attempt to bridge the council’s projected budget deficit of almost £1.5m by 2025/26 - £537,000 of which will arise and need clearing by next year - the authority intends to:

***make the council more financially self-sufficient via investments that provide benefits to residents and businesses whilst also generating income.

***realise savings through the procurement of its contracts, including joint contractual arrangements with South Ribble Council.

*** identify efficiencies through investment in infrastructure, ICT and by exploring alternative delivery models that will enable the council to balance the budget “whilst seeking to minimise the impact on front line service users”.

Source: Chorley Council budget papers, 2023/24