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With an overall theme of protection and investment, the budget priorities are:
- backing our children and young people
- delivering better basic services
- investing in our communities
- tackling the climate emergency.
The £40m additional investment is in addition to the £300m already committed for long-term investment in local projects.
Residents will continue to get good services from the council with key services like social care, recycling and waste and roads and pavement maintenance protected. The budget also protects local people from the impact of cuts, and increases in fees and charges are being kept to a minimum.
Cllr Ash Cartman, executive member for finance commented on the budget saying: "Our administration is continuing to work hard together to deliver for the common good of the people of North Somerset. Through our collaborative approach we are committed to making North Somerset open, fairer and greener, and this budget does just that.
"The past two years have been incredibly hard for everyone. As we emerge from the pandemic we want North Somerset to thrive. We are committed to supporting our children and young people to have the best start in life and also to protecting our care services for adults.
"We're passionate about tackling the climate emergency and this budget sets out a series of initiatives that will accelerate our commitment to be carbon neutral by 2030."
Council tax will increase by 2.99 per cent. This increase is driven by social care pressures and won’t even cover the gap in costs to provide these services. This increase includes a 1 per cent increase specifically to support adult social care services. Almost every council in the country will be increasing council tax at this rate.
Following the recent central government announcement that properties in council tax bands A to D will receive a £150 payment to support increasing energy bills, the council is expecting further advice about handling these payments. When council tax bills are sent out in March they will not reflect the reduced amount for affected properties. This will follow a separate process and more information will be available when guidance from government is received.
Adult social care remains under-funded by central government, and the pressures in this area will not be solved by the precept increase. Therefore it will receive £8.7m of new money to help address the pressures in this area.
Cllr Cartman added: "Increasing council tax is not something we do lightly given the other cost-of-living pressures our residents are facing, but the council is not immune to cost pressures either and we have worked to mitigate impacts on services and household budgets. There are still risks with pressures of inflation, demand and income which we'll need to manage and there continues to be a budget challenge in the years ahead with significant gaps forecast which will need to be addressed.
"We're actively contributing to the government funding reviews and making sure our voice is heard to campaign for fairer funding We face significant challenges in the next three years beyond this and with only annual settlements from government longer-term planning is virtually impossible."