East Sussex residents set to face further increases to council tax bills
East Sussex residents are set to face further increases to their council tax bills, as part of budget proposals.
On Tuesday (January 28), East Sussex County Council’s cabinet endorsed proposals for the authority’s 2025/26 annual budget, which are set to be put to a full council vote in February.
The proposals include plans to increase the authority’s council tax demand by 2.99 per cent, alongside a two per cent increase in its adult social care precept.
These increases would result in a band D household paying an additional £88.74 next year, before increases from other tax-raising authorities are also taken into account.
Cllr Nick Bennett, lead member for resources and climate change, said the council tax and precept increases — alongside major savings and the use of reserves — would be necessary to prevent worsening of the authority’s financial position.
Cllr Bennett (Con) said: “Despite our strong track record there remains a significant financial gap due to factors outside of our control, which we have discussed several times during the course of this and similar meetings.
“In this context and with ongoing pressures on services we are presenting a budget which will see us spend over £1.1 billion gross and £580 million net. In balancing the budget we will need to make savings in 2025/26 of £13.5 million and draw £11.4 million from our reducing reserves.
“In terms of council tax, it is confirmed in the settlement that we have the option to take up to two per cent for the adult social care levy and 2.99 per cent for council tax. The medium term financial plan and the proposed budget are based on the maximum council tax increase for 2025/26.”
According to council papers, the authority faces an overall deficit of £27.6 million in 2025/26, which includes a £14.3 million deficit brought forward from 2024/25. This would need to be offset by savings and the use of reserves, the council papers say.
Council papers say the savings proposed will be “significant and difficult”. They are expected to include new savings of £13.5 million in 2025/26 and would include the proposed cuts to adult social care, which were put out to public consultation last year.
In all, savings within the council’s adult social care budget — which include proposals to close a number of day services for older people and people with learning disabilities — are expected to account for around £7.42 million of the overall savings in 2025/26.
Further savings of £3.239 million are expected to come from the council’s children’s services budget. Council papers say around half of this figure (£1.593 million) is expected to come from changes to who looks after children in care. The council says it intends to find this money by reducing the overall number of children placed into care and to find ways to place more of those who are with foster families rather than “high cost” residential homes.
The council says it also intends to find savings of £1.06 million in its business services budget, £1.553 million in its communities, economy and transport budget and £233,000 in its governance services budget. These savings include plans to increase on-street pay and display parking fees by five per cent and staffing cuts.
Even with these savings, the council says it would still expects to face a significant shortfall, which will require drawing £11.4m reserves to set a balanced budget. The council says this money will need to be drawn from “service specific reserves”, which officers warn will constrain the council’s ability to manage future financial risk and known liabilities in these areas.
Concerns were raised by Liberal Democrat group leader David Tutt, who described the proposals as the ‘worst of all worlds.’
He said: “What we are looking at, the response you are putting forward to us, is actually the worst of all worlds. It is seeing cuts to services, it is seeing an above inflation increase in the council tax demand and it is seeing a raid on our reserves and our balances.
“I’ve got concerns, similar to those that I had in past years, around special education needs and children’s services. I acknowledge you are putting more money into that this year, but I still don’t believe that is keeping pace with the increasing trend of the demand for those services.”
Cllr Tutt went on to say that he supported the use of “unallocated” reserves to help balance the budget next year, but had concerns about the use of the service specific reserves. He pointed specifically to the use of monies from the council’s Waste Reserve — from which the council intends to draw £9.4 million — arguing upcoming pressures in this area posed a significant risk in future years.