Teignbridge maintains council tax freeze
Teignbridge District Council's share of the Council Tax remains unchanged for the sixth year in a row after Full Council approved budget plans for the coming financial year.
Prudent financial management, ongoing savings and additional income identified through a series of internal business challenge reviews have contributed to maintain front line services whilst absorbing cuts in grant funding from Government.
The final financial plans 2015/16 include:
- A continued Council Tax freeze of Teignbridge’s portion of the bill, keeping the average Band D price for district council services at £150.17
- £40,000 in rural aid funding with £15,000 going towards a Dartmoor Grant Fund that will help Teignbridge villages within Dartmoor National Park
- No car park price increases and continuing the free Sunday parking scheme that operates across Teignbridge-owned car parks
- Injecting housing capital to affordable housing budgets as and when funds allow and sites become available
The addition of moving funds from housing capital to affordable housing budgets arose from debate at Overview and Scrutiny Committee on February 9 at which it was agreed Full Council would give the matter consideration.
During the Full Council meeting at Forde House yesterday, Tuesday February 24, councillors engaged in informed cross party debate before the plans were approved by 29 votes to 14.
Cllr Stuart Barker, Teignbridge District Council's executive spokesman for assets and resources said:
“This is a fair, prudent budget that aims to safeguard the services that matter most to our residents, maintain the council tax freeze and continue to invest in creating more jobs, building more affordable homes and offering value for money services to residents against a backdrop of diminishing government grants.
“The budget takes into consideration the investment needed to give residents a new, improved recycling and waste collection service, something which will be rolled out later this year, and offers people separate weekly food waste collections, a new collection of mixed plastics packaging and a new collection of all types of cardboard.
“We still face the same challenges of delivering services to our residents for less and this won’t change. However, we’ve found a way to keep council tax the same for the sixth year, help rural communities and create some flexibility with funds for affordable housing where possible – an amendment brought forward though previous budget debates.”
Teignbridge will maintain general reserves at £1.36million and make ongoing revenue contributions to fund capital of nearly £2million per year.
A provision of a 2.2% pay increase for staff from 1 January 2015 to 31 March 2016 is something that has been agreed nationally following negotiations between Local Government Employers and Trade Unions.
Teignbridge, depite being the collecting authority for Council Tax, only retains 9% of the total bill, with the majority going to Devon County Council (72%) and contributions also going to the Police Crime Commissioner (11%), Fire Authority (5%), and local town or parish councils (3%).
