East Sussex sticking to its guns on council tax

Earlier this year, the Council approved a council tax increase of 4.7% for the current year followed by 4.3% in 07/08, 3.9% in 08/09 and 3.5% in 09/10.

At the same time it set future spending cash limits for all its services.

This week, the Council confirmed it was sticking to its plans to deliver a phased reduction in council tax increases while focusing its resources on key services. Support for schools will rise by 5.8% but this is met by a special grant from Government.

Outside schools, Government only funds about a quarter of spending and they have increased this by only 2.7% or 2.1m for 2007/08.

All the remaining service pressures such as paying for care for the elderly, road maintenance and waste falls on the council tax payer.

East Sussex is one of 15 counties (including all south east counties) who have only received the minimum increase of 2.7% in government grant for services outside schools.

The average for all other County Council's in the UK is 5%. Deputy Council Leader Tony Reid, said: "Once again we've only been given the minimum grant increase of 2.7% or 2.1m but this is not enough to even cover simple inflation on all our costs.

However, we will stick to our guns and continue with our plans to bring down council tax increases. We prudently planned for this and we are determined to not exceed the council tax increase we set for next year of 4.3%.

"Our plans have ensured we can focus our resources on our most vulnerable residents.

But we also recognise our responsibility for services used by everyone, such as roads and waste disposal. We are spending an extra 6m on adult social care but it means all other services are facing a cash freeze or a very modest increase. "It also means that we have to find 9m of savings next year to keep to our council tax plans. We aim to do this through even bigger efficiency savings but we cannot shirk from looking at what we provide and how we provide it.

Some very difficult decisions will have to be made. "We will continue to battle for a better deal for East Sussex residents but things will only really improve when central government has a complete re-think about the way local services are funded and, in particular, acknowledge the true cost of caring for our growing number of elderly residents. East Sussex has the highest percentage of over 85s in the country, many of whom need care and support.

The number of elderly people is set to rise rapidly over the next 20 years - we are facing a demographic time bomb." The Council is currently looking at possible savings across all its main services.

Consultation on these proposals will continue before any final decisions are made in February next year. Areas under consideration for possible changes or cuts include directly provided care services, winter gritting, the Play Development Service, youth development and some building maintenance for schools and other council properties.