Council budget consultation
Continued national financial challenges across the whole of local government provides the background to this year’s budget setting process, with residents encouraged to consider this context ahead of responding to the consultation.
Costs to council services have risen significantly over the last year, driven in particular by rising costs in providing housing to homeless families, and in adult and children’s social care. The cost of temporary accommodation per household has almost doubled in the last two years, with the cost of adult and children’s social care having risen dramatically as well. The projected overall growth /cost pressures on the council have increased by £25m to £27m per annum just since February 2024, leading to £32m in net additional costs to the budget for 2025/26. Further pressures from inflation and changes to employers’ national insurance contributions could add a further £10m in cost pressures to the council.
In addition, the situation for Bromley is made worse by long running disparity in funding for local government, where Inner London boroughs consistently receive proportionally greater funding than Outer London. Additional government funding announced last Autumn was insufficient to support local authorities through the scale of the challenges being faced, with this funding continuing to be unfairly distributed for Bromley residents.
Bromley’s well-managed finances and efficient, low-cost services have given reserves which have allowed Bromley to avoid the worse situation being faced by many councils until now. Careful investment decisions have also helped support Bromley’s position with the high performing pension fund an example of how potential costs are being mitigated. Additionally, successful transformation work in recent years have made significant savings by improving the efficiency of service delivery. An expanded transformation programme is now examining opportunities across the council for further savings in the delivery of council services with almost £18m in savings having been identified in the first year, in addition to over £1m which were already planned from prior years’ programmes.
However, these will still be insufficient to meet the scale of the challenges being faced, with a current projected budget gap of around £26.6m in 2026/27.
Bromley continues to fight for additional funding under a fairer model that would allow the council to manage the financial challenges while maintaining the service levels that residents need and deserve. But in the absence of such support, difficult decisions are now being faced.
It is against this difficult and unprecedented context and the limited options available for the budget, that views are being sought from residents about their priorities to help guide this budget-setting process.
Residents are encouraged to read further background to the financial situation before responding to the consultation, which also outlines what has been achieved in Bromley over the last year despite these financial pressures.