Council’s budget to go under spotlight

Initial proposals for Cornwall Council’s budget for 2025/26 will be discussed by the cabinet when it meets in Truro this week as the authority warned that ‘difficult choices must be made’.

It said that despite some increased funding announced in the Autumn Statement in Westminster, the financial challenges facing local authorities across the UK means “difficult choices must be made in order to balance the books”.

Therefore, although the council says it is in a better position than many of its contemporaries thanks to previous “prudent financial management”, there is still a shortfall to be addressed, which will be tackled by measures including:
Increases in fees and charges
Some reduction in workforce costs
Reducing levels of some services

Residents will have the opportunity to have their say on the proposals following the meeting next week as part of a public consultation.

This year Cornwall Council has a net annual revenue budget of £771m, which covers the cost of delivering a wide range of frontline services valued by more than 570,000 residents and visitors.

Faced with increased demand and cost pressures amounting to over a £100m, including contractual inflation, the papers propose £49m of savings, along with increased grants, to deliver a balanced budget of £829m for next year.

Cllr David Harris, deputy leader of Cornwall Council, said: “We have already had to deliver £143m of savings in the past five years, and now the twin pressures of static funding and rising costs and demand mean that we need to identify more.

“It means difficult choices have to be made, where we have to look at all of our services and identify areas where we can increase efficiencies, reduce spending, and deliver a balanced budget.

“I am grateful to our officers, who have gone through our work with a fine toothcomb, and identified cost-saving measures which are achievable, whilst at the same time extremely challenging to deliver.

“The issue we have is simple, we have to balance the books or the problems we store up for the future will be even greater and an even greater impact on our residents.

“I have said it before and I will sadly no doubt say it again, the issues we face are fundamental, and need to be addressed by Westminster as soon as possible.

“Cornwall needs fairer funding, and it needs multi-year settlements so we can plan our budgets for the years ahead, rather than having this annual scramble to cut costs to meet ever-tougher budgetary challenges.”