Draft budget 2024/25 proposals - consultation
Draft budget 2024/25 proposals
Reigate & Banstead Borough Council has finished consulting on its budget proposals for April 2024 to March 2025.
The results of the consultation will be published in due course.
Summary of the draft budget 2024/25 proposals
The published draft budget is based on a full assessment of current council budgets and future financial opportunities and pressures. It also reflects the Council’s commitment to its financial sustainability programme, looking at four key areas: income generation, use of assets, prioritisation of resources and achieving value for money.
Proposals for our revenue budget (which covers the day-to-day costs of service delivery) 2024/25 include:
- Encouraging wider use of our community centres to generate more income including private hire
- Saving money through the use of solar compacting litter bins which need emptying less frequently
- Building assumptions about rental income from new commercial properties (including The Rise, Redhill) into our budget
- Making savings from ‘rightsizing’ existing budgets in some service areas
- Increasing some locally set fees and charges, so we can continue to cover the costs of service delivery
- Using other sources of income to pay for some activities, including from external partners and funds held in reserve
- Creating staff posts to deliver new statutory responsibilities in our Planning and Environmental Health teams, and to expand our Sustainability and IT services
- Upgrading our fleet of street sweepers and using more environmentally friendly fuels in vehicles where we can
- Increasing overall funding available for salaries to cover contractual and cost of living wage increases for staff
The budget also includes proposals for increased spending on our buildings over the next five years to make them more energy efficient and reduce our carbon emissions.
Overall, the draft budget includes service revenue budget growth proposals totalling £0.943 million, income and savings of £1.719 million and additional fees and charges of £0.540 million. We anticipate having to draw on our earmarked financial revenue reserves to mitigate areas of financial risk to the Council, such as housing benefit pressures, potentially up to the value of £0.964 million.
Council Tax is an important source of income for the Council and funds approximately 20 per cent of our annual budget. Our draft budget is based on the assumption that Reigate & Banstead’s 11 pence in the pound share of the Council Tax Bill will increase by an average of £7.47 per year for Band D households. The remainder of the Council Tax we collect is split between Surrey County Council and Surrey Police.
The final budget and Council Tax for 2024/25 will be reported to the Full Council in February next year.
Additional Information
Information on the equality impact assessment for the proposals in the annual budget is available in the following document:
Equality impact of 2024-2025 draft budget proposals (PDF)
Information on the proposed changes to fees and charges for 2024-2025 is available via the link below: