Council expects local government financial settlement to change overall budget position

Shropshire Council says it’s not expecting its local government financial settlement for 2025/26 to change its overall budget position.

The local authority is currently consulting on proposals to save up to £8.5m. This includes possibly moving to three weekly household general waste collections, changing park and ride services in Shrewsbury, cutting opening houses at the museum and castle in Shrewsbury, and switching off some of the streetlights.

If the funding allocation is found to fall short of the total it needs to cover its planned costs, the council’s savings plans for next year may need to be reviewed.  This will be included in the draft medium term financial strategy, which is due to be published within the agenda at a scrutiny meeting on January 20.

Shropshire Council is already reducing its size by one in five jobs, while charging to collect green waste and having a booking system at his household recycling centres are two iniatitives it has introduced to make essential savings.

The removal of the rural services delivery grant, worth approximately £8.8m a year for Shropshire, is highlighted as one of the potential new strains on the council’s already stretched budget. Providing social care services in the county also accounts for 80% of its budget.

Gwilym Butler, cabinet member for finance, corporate resources and communities said: “This week’s announcement brings many changes to the funding formula for local government, and it will take time for us to work through the implications of this for Shropshire, when we are already facing very tough decisions.

“We are in a very challenging position that could be made worse without any funding that takes account of the extra costs of being a large, sparsely populated area – such as long travel times and fuel costs.

“We would welcome the opportunity to work with the ministry for housing, community and local government to make sure these factors affecting rural authorities are fairly taken into account, as part of any long overdue review of council funding that the Government is committed to.

“We may need to revisit our spending plans for next year, finding more ways to further reduce spending, increase our income and manage demand for our services where we can.

“It is more important than ever that local people have their say in our budget consultation, to help shape our next steps.

“A draft medium term financial strategy will be taken to Cabinet in January 2025, with more details on the difficult decisions we may have to seriously consider.”

You can take part in Shropshire Council’s budget consultation for 20225/26 up until January 26. Visit shropshire.gov.uk/budget25 for more details.