Public Consultation to help shape 2025/26 budget launches today

We invite residents, businesses and partners to give us their views before the consultation ends at 12 noon on Monday 13 January 2025.

Financial challenges but an ongoing commitment to delivering quality local services

The Council has a strong track record of financial management and provides over 50 different services to our 156,000 residents. This includes everything from waste & recycling collections, street cleaning and homelessness services, to business support and community safety.

Like all local authorities, we face continuing and new financial pressures, due to many factors including a continued reduction in central government funding, and the impact of ongoing economic factors.

This means that every year we need to budget carefully. We do so to ensure that we are able to continue to deliver both statutory and non-statutory services that are used and valued by residents across the borough – including the priorities set out in our draft Corporate Plan for 2025-2030.

At its meeting on 14 November, the Council’s Executive approved the public consultation on the draft budget for 2025/26.

At this stage in the budget setting process, the Council has not been able to fully balance its revenue budget, despite having included revenue budget savings and additional income generation proposals within the draft budget.

It is currently estimated that a draw down on reserves of £0.297million will be required to balance the budget. This figure will be finalised in January once more detail is available, both about the funding we will receive from Government next year, and once we have completed work to better understand future service costs in some areas (including on future arts and culture provision and the Harlequin Theatre).

Your chance to help inform the final budget

Leader of the Council, Cllr Richard Biggs, says: “We have published our draft budget proposals for the coming year, and we now want to hear your views.

“We are committed to continuing to deliver high quality services for our communities, but it is increasingly difficult to do so given the current circumstances that local government is faced with.

“We have worked really hard to balance our budget this year, but our draft budget shows a shortfall of just under £0.3 million meaning we’ll need to draw on our reserves to meet our commitments next year. These reserves are ‘one off’ money and relying on them is not a long term solution.

“We want to know what you think about our proposals and whether we have got the right balance between service delivery and using our limited funding.

“Your responses will help inform the final Council budget for 2025/26, which will be agreed at a meeting of the Full Council in February 2025.”

The draft budget includes service budget growth proposals totalling £0.666 million, service savings of £0.687 million and additional fees and charges of £0.182 million.

Council Tax is an important source of income for the Council and funds approximately 75% of our net annual budget. Our draft budget is based on the assumption that Reigate & Banstead’s 10 pence in the pound share of the Council Tax Bill will increase by an average of £7.69 per year for B and D households. The remainder of the Council Tax we collect is split between Surrey County Council and Surrey Police.

How to have your say

The draft budget consultation will run from Monday 18 November 2024 to 12 noon on Monday 13 January 2025.

You can comment by:

• Completing our online survey
• Emailing us at: engagement@reigate-banstead.gov.uk
• Writing to us at: FREEPOST RBBC CONSULTATIONS (no address needed)

You can view the relevant documents and supporting information via the Consultation web page www.reigate-banstead.gov.uk/budget-consultation.

Another way to feed back for some fees and charges

Some of our fees and charges, including car park charges, require a separate statutory consultation. Where required, these separate consultations will be undertaken before any relevant changes are implemented and will be available via our draft budget consultation web page.