Draft Budget Consultation 2022-23

Consultation: Setting a balanced budget for 2022/23

Each year the Council must set a balanced budget that balances spending on services with the resources available. In the current year 2021/22, further information about how the Council spends your money can be found on the following link:

Brent Council - How we spend your money

In recent years, the government has been reducing its grant funding to councils. Brent Council gets all of its income from council tax, business rates, money it can raise itself and specific government grants.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on residents and businesses in the borough. It has also created additional financial pressures for the Council to manage. However, the Council is committed to supporting the borough through the recovery phase and will also continue to develop and deliver on its Borough Plan commitments.

Brent Council would like to invite people who live and work in this borough to tell us their views on the proposals for the 2022/23 Budget. We want to know what services are the most important to local people so we can make the best decisions about where to make savings.

The new proposals for 2022/23 are designed to limit, as far as possible, service reductions and the impact on front line services particularly during these challenging times.

The key features of the 2022/23 budget are:

·      A council tax increase of 2.99%, making a Band D council tax of £1,419.48 (for the Brent element). The GLA precept, which typically makes up 20% of the overall bill, is currently unknown and is subject to their own decision making.

 ·      Budget savings proposals (all of which were considered by Council in February 2021) with an aggregate value of £2.7m, as summarised in Appendix A.

 The Council is also proposing an increase to rent for council tenants by the consumer price index (CPI) plus 1% in line with the Government Rent Setting Standard. This works out at an increase of £4.87 per week on average. There is also a proposal to increase service charges to account for the increased costs to provide services like caretaking or communal energy. Estate Caretaking and concierge services are proposed to rise by CPI + 1% whilst other charges like communal heating, lighting and hot water are proposed to rise in line with energy prices. There is no proposed change to grounds maintenance services.

The Council is asking for views on how it spends its money to help set a balance budget with increasing costs and reduced Government funding. The information from this survey will be used by Councillors as they set the budget and council tax for 2022/23.

Further information on the Council’s overall financial position and how it intends to set a balanced budget for 2022/23 was presented to the Cabinet on 6 December 2021. The papers for that meeting are attached to this consultation.