Central Bedfordshire Council Publishes Draft Proposal for 2025/2026
Date Added: 27/11/2024
Central Bedfordshire Council (CBC) has published the draft budget proposals for 2025/2026. The proposals set out some changes to services that will help reduce costs by £13m by reshaping the organisation. This will mean removing non-essential spend and reducing the number of staff employed across different services across the council. This could mean the council will be slower to respond to queries and the council will have reduced capacity to deliver new projects and initiatives. However, CBC believes this is a price worth paying to preserve key public services and ensure finances are set on a firm footing for the years to come. hese changes will be subject to staff consultations so the detail about which services and which roles cannot be provided at this time.
The need for these changes arises from increasing demand and rising costs in children’s services, adult social care, special educational needs and school transport. CBC has seen an unexpected increase in demand for adult social care, resulting in a 35% increase in costs. Furthermore, a 70% increase has been recorded in costs of residential care for children in CBC's care in just one year.
Adult Social Care and Children’s Services make the biggest difference to vulnerable people's lives, and they are services CBC has to provide by law. They are also costly services to deliver - almost two-thirds (62%) of the revenue budget is already spent on these two areas alone.
The Executive will consider the draft budget on 3rd December. The capital budget will be published on 23rd December and considered by the Executive on 7th January.
Both budgets will be open for public consultation from 7th January until 4th February 2025. Residents can have their say on the CBC website or pick up paper copies from CBC libraries when the consultation is open.
You may read on the draft budget proposals here: https://www.centralbedfordshire.gov.uk/budget