The council has to prepare its annual budget within the limits set by the Government’s spending plans. Our annual budget is set within the context of the Government’s Autumn Statement announced on 22 November 2023, which set overall Local Government funding for 2024/25. The detailed funding Settlement for Local Government for 2024/25 was then announced in December 2023 and, once again, has provided only a one-year Settlement.
To date the council has responded successfully to this financial challenge. Although our budget strategy does see many areas of the council continuing to reduce budgets, we continue to focus on the outcomes outlined in our Best City Ambition. Our ambition is for Leeds to be the best city in the UK, to be achieved by focusing on improving outcomes across the 3 pillars of: Health and Wellbeing; inclusive growth and zero carbon. At its heart is our mission to tackle poverty and inequality and improve quality of life for everyone who calls Leeds home.
Recognising the increasing demand for Adult Social Care (ASC) services, in 2016/17 the Government announced a new power for local authorities with social care responsibilities to increase council tax. Government has permitted up to a 2% increase for the ASC precept for 2024/25. The Leeds element of council tax for 2024/25 is therefore increasing by 4.98%, made up of a 2.99% core increase plus 1.99% to be used exclusively to protect and improve ASC services. This increase is within the limits set by Government.
Council tax bills include amounts (also known as “precepts”) for the Police and Crime Commissioner and the Fire and Rescue Authority. The Police and Crime Commissioner has increased the Police council tax by £13 (5.50%) per Band D property and the Fire and Rescue Authority have increased their council tax by £2.31 (2.99%) per Band D property. As a result the overall increase in council tax in Leeds is 4.96%, which in cash terms is £97.22 for a band D property - equivalent to £1.87 per week.
For those living in areas with parish or town councils the overall increase may be slightly different, because many local precepts set by these councils, which are included in your council tax bill, have also changed this year.
Our consultation on the Proposed Budget for 2024/25 tells us that people were generally supportive of the council’s approach to the budget, with 80% of those responding agreeing that we should raise money through increasing council tax and charges with half of these (50%) agreeing that this should be balanced with cuts and reduction of services.
When asked how much they agree or disagree with the proposal to increase council tax in Leeds by 4.98%, 2.99% for the core Leeds element, plus an additional 1.99% to support adult social care services, three quarters (75%) of respondents agreed with our approach to increase core council tax for 2024/25, with slightly fewer (72%) agreeing with our approach of applying an additional levy to support adult social care services (39% strongly agreed and 33% tended to agree).
Overall, 68% of respondents were generally in agreement with the proposed revenue budget at the time of the consultation.
Around 60% of our expenditure for 2024/25 will be on Adult Social Care and Children’s Services, reflecting our Best City Ambition priority to support the most vulnerable across the city.
Despite having to take difficult decisions about the level and quality of services and how to target them towards greatest need, we continue to develop and implement our approach to design care and support arrangements around the strengths of people who draw on care and support services and carers.
We have included extra funding for Adult's and Children's Social Care to reflect the increasing demand and demographic pressure for care packages.
In addition:
The council continues to invest in the infrastructure of the city, with funding provided to support and maintain highways, winter service delivery and street lighting.
Additional funding has been provided for the maintenance of horticultural features across the city including within the highway network and several transport infrastructure improvements, including the East Leeds Orbital route (ELOR).
As an authority, we have increased our lowest pay rate to £12 per hour, a figure in line with the Real Living Wage rate. We have also, in respect of services commissioned from external providers by both Adults and Health and Children and Families directorates made financial provision to be consistent with the national minimum wage assumptions for 2024/25.
As an authority, we continue to support our most vulnerable Council Tax payers by continuing to provide Local Council Tax Support at the same level as in previous years.
Additional budget provision has been made for the increased disposal costs of waste at the Recycling and Energy Recovery Facility. As an authority we are working to introduce kerbside collection of glass bottles and jars with the intention to introduce this service in 2024.
Demand pressures for the transportation of adults within Leeds by the Passenger Transport in-house service is provided for in the 2024/25 budget.
