You can have your say on Central Bedfordshire Council’s plans to:

• spend around £475 million on services, including more money for adult social care and children’s services
• spend £253 million on new facilities like schools, leisure centres and care homes
• increase efficiency, reducing costs by £9.5 million
• not increase our share of Council Tax*

This year we face a challenging financial climate caused by rising inflation and increasing demand for services. Inflation has added an extra £16.6 million to the cost of running the Council over the next year. We’re not alone in this – all other local authorities are grappling with the same challenges. Many councils are concerned as they face huge funding gaps and tough decisions to reduce discretionary services.

We pride ourselves on good financial management and planning which has left us in a sound position. We had already budgeted for some increase in inflation, and we are improving our efficiency to reduce our running costs which gives us some ability to offset the pressures. We are also using some of our reserves (savings) so that we do not need to raise our share of Council Tax next financial year. Given the pressures on households with the rising cost of living this is particularly important.