I wrote a while ago that which ever party (or parties) win the May local election in Brent will be faced with a challenging financial situation. They will inherit the 2026-27 budget currently going out to consultation after approval at Monday's Cabinet Meeting.
Although there was plenty of mutual praise anomf Cabinet members there was no disguising the serious financial situation with increasing costs of homelessness accommodation, the Housing Revenue Account coping with the cost of repairs required by the Social Housing Regulator, increasing costs in Adut and Children's Social Care and the soaring demands on the High Needs Grant for children with SEND, In addition 65% of Brent Council maintained schools are forecasting in-year deficits and facing restructures of staff to reduce costs.
Meanwhile the Labour Government is still to decide the local government funding settlement and the current confusion over the Budget offers little realistic hope. Green MP Carla Denyer said, 'Local councils continue to be underfunded by the UK Government, and I will keep pushing Labour to give them the funding they need.'
The Brent budget gap is due to rise to £30m by 2028-29:
Apart from growth through increased demand there is also the additional inflation cost;
To bridge the £10.4m 2026-27 budget gap savings/cuts are proposed to be decided at the Budget Setting Meeting in February 2026:
A 4.99% Council tax increase is proposed (2.99% general, 2% social care) and a 4.8% council rent increase, increased service charges and increased borrowing to bring the Housing Revenue Account into balance:
Among proposals to close the budget gap are a saving through challenging procurement costs of £3m, digital including AI innovation £1.43m, service efficiencies of 1% £3.2m, staffing reduction £400k, increased fees and chages £500k, self-service web-forms rather than email £655k, lane rental increase to utility companies £350k , off-street parking charges increased to market rates £130k. There also be less tolerance of bad debt and an effort to get maximum market rent from Brent properties other than council homes.
Spending currently underway ahead of the May election on roads and tree planting is largely financed as a one-off by the Neighbourhood Community Infrastructure Levy.
Savings/Cuts proposed
Hover mouse over foot of extract to enlarge.
Brent Council has launched a consultation on the proposals:
Councillor Muhammed Butt, Leader of Brent Council, said:
Many councils continue to operate under severe financial duress. Brent isn’t immune to these challenges, but we have continued to manage our finances responsibly over many, many years, allowing us to protect the frontline services that matter most.
We are now accelerating our programme to transform the way we work so we can continue to protect essential services. This isn’t an easy task but I’m pleased that most of our £10million financial plan will come from working more efficiently and effectively. If you live or work locally, I urge you to have your say on the proposals.
14 comments:
The £10 million of "savings" is fiction. If it was so easy why has this not been done before? Cllr Butt has been the Labour Leader of Brent Council for over 10 years. Does this mean that by failing to do this for so long he and the Labour Party has wasted £100 million of local Council Taxpayers money?
Until now Mo Butt has been able to blame Tory governments for the underfunding. Not any more!!!
The "savings" are just CUTS under another name. Why are they afraid to call them CUTS?
What is the Social Housing Adjudicator. What does it do?
Poor management if you ask me. But is that surprising when you look at the lack of skills displayed by the Labour Councillors?
Just like their buddies in the Labour Government, and Mayor of London, none of them have ever run a business and what they know about budgeting anfd finance would fit on to a postage stamp, mismanagement and wasteful spending on vanity projects, and unnecessary consultations, and the book stops with Butt. Get rid of them next May.
Should have been Social Housing Regulator - corrected.
When are they going to collect all the unpaid council tax???
Brent has been named as the London borough with the largest amount of council tax debt arrears ... Brent's arrears amount to a staggering £92.2m, according to the latest government figures. Whilst the council says there are those who can pay but don’t, the local authority has blamed the cost-of-living crisis for making poverty an “inescapable reality” that has meant some residents are simply struggling to meet the costs."
When asked about this recently Leader of Brent Council Cllr Butt said a lot of people move with giving a forwarding address but that can't account for these massive debts that rest of us will have to cover. And we have more and more students using our services for free.
https://www.kilburntimes.co.uk/news/25289452.brent-london-borough-unpaid-council-tax/
"channel shift" - is consultantspeak for "reducing customer service" - and paying expensive IT consultants for doing so. What about chasing down council tax arrears? incompetent
Houses with huge extensions need to be revalued instantly for council tax rather than when they are next sold.
Council tax cuts off and ends at a 3 bedroom semi, that is a 'mansion' for UK decision makers. How has that injustice politically sustained all these decades?
Most 3 bedroom semis have been extended on all directions and should therefore be paying more council tax particularly those now crammed with HMO tenants!
30 years of political magical thinking was England having no homes in it larger than a 3 bedroom semi-detached house.
Good times, for the few not the many.
Landlords who have converted 1, 2and 3 bedroom apartments into 2,3,4 and 5 bedrooms should be paying more council tax as they are benefiting by letting out apartments as HMOs. Done are also not licences as HMOs.
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