Council tax will be frozen in Ealing for the seventh year running despite facing £23.2 million cuts in its annual Government funding from April.
Ealing Council’s cabinet made the announcement at a meeting last night (January 20).
On December 18 the Government confirmed reductions to the amount it allocates to the council in its Settlement Funding Assessment from £154.8m in 2014/15 to £131.6m for 2015/16; a 15 per cent reduction and a bigger cut than the national average of 13.9 per cent.
Also, last July the council announced it would need to make unprecedented savings of £96m by April 2019, forcing it to change or stop some local services.
A video was produced at no cost to the council with help from residents about how the cuts will affect them:
Councillor Julian Bell, leader of the council, said: “The council is facing the bleakest financial period in its history, mainly because of massive Government cuts in public sector funding. We have made good progress to identify how savings could be made so that we adapt to the dramatic change in our circumstances while living within our means.
“By freezing council tax over the past four years we estimate we have saved local people around £26m in charges."
At the meeting, councillors approved a further £12.7m budget reductions of which £6.8m would be saved from April 2015. They still need to identify a further £18.8m if it is to meet its overall target.
Among the budget reductions being considered were £10.4m of savings in children’s and adults’ services, with plans to recruit more local foster carers.
The council will also review how it spends public health funding.
Councillor Yvonne Johnson, cabinet member for finance, performance and welfare, said: “We have ambitious plans to attract more businesses into the borough. This will create new jobs and increase our income from business rates. We are ensuring more affordable homes are built; as well as creating enough school places for our children; and we will, of course, be pushing for the best health-care services for our residents.”
The council will set its budget for the next financial year on February 24. The Government will give all local authorities who freeze council tax a grant and in Ealing this is worth £1.3m.
