Wiltshire Council agreed its budget for 2024/25 at the mammoth 10-hour Full Council meeting on Tuesday 20th February. I am pleased that the Council plans to continue with its focus on prevention and early-intervention; this has proved to work fantastically well in Children’s Services which was recently graded Outstanding by Ofsted.
As an example, Wiltshire Council’s new Family Hub model will start on 1st April 2024, and will enable families with a child or young people person aged 0-19 (0-25 where there are Special Educational Needs or Disabilities), to access an integrated multi-agency service for help and advice within community Hubs as well as online. The Hubs themselves will be based in three strategic locations, in Trowbridge, Chippenham, and Salisbury as well as 21 satellite locations throughout the County, including Devizes.
Mature, level-headed financial management, preventing problems before they appear, means that the Council is forecasting a modest underspend of £634k for the 2023/24 financial year. From this strong position, the council has planned its budget for the next three years and isn’t reliant on reserves to deliver day-to-day services. How many other local authorities in this country can say the same? Many are already bankrupt.
In 2024/25, an ADDITIONAL £36m will support the Council’s service budgets, with nearly £25m of that going on adult and children’s services. Overall, the Council’s proposed budget for 2024/25 stands at around £486m. The most significant spending in 2024/25 will be:
- Adult services – £179.4m
- Families and children – £70.8m
- Environment – £49.5m
- Highways and transport – £43m
- Education and skills – £35.1m
The knock-on impact of our early-intervention and preventative strategy means that further investment can be made to improve services and infrastructure. Despite the challenging financial climate nationally, Wiltshire Council is able to allocate an EXTRA £10m over the next two years to spend on filling potholes, road resurfacing and verge repairs. Also included in the budget is an additional £1m investment into extra gully cleaning, effectively trebling drain-clearing work since 2021. The Council is also focussing on strengthening work around enforcement, building on the significant reduction in fly-tipping in the last 18 months.
The capital programme for 2024/25 has been budgeted at around £285m and details the Council’s investment in the improvement and maintenance of the County’s infrastructure including £45m to build and refurbish council houses, £11m towards Trowbridge and Salisbury Future High Streets, £7m in additional Highways investment and £3m investment in leisure centres with more than £20m allocated in subsequent financial years.
You may contact me about this or any other matter by email to dominic.muns@wiltshire.gov.uk or by phone on 07585 394 178.
