Crawley council tax to rise as budget is agreed

The increase along with a £45 rise from West Sussex County Council and another £10 from Sussex Police, will see annual Band D bills jump by around £60.

The borough council change was given the nod during a meeting on Wednesday (February 23).

Also approved was the budget for 2022/23 – though when it came to the vote, the entire Conservative group abstained.

Peter Lamb, leader of the council, told the meeting that reserves had had to be used to balance the budget but there would be no cuts to services.

He warned of ‘tough challenges ahead’ but added that the budget was ‘sustainable’ and put the council on the ‘right organisational footprint for the years to come’.

Among the pots used to make ends meet were £451,730 from the general reserve to cover the additional costs of the pandemic, and £1.09m from the business rates equalisation reserve.

The general fund budget – which includes all income and expenditure incurred in the day-to-day running of the council – will stand at £14.319m, which is £901k more than last year.

The capital programme for 2022/23, which covers large/one-projects, will stand at £53.9m.

Mr Lamb said: “It’s a budget which not only continues to provide services free from cuts.

“It contains £6m of investment into temporary housing, which will enable us to keep families close to their community and where they go to school, and enable us at the same time to retain the money which currently goes out to temporary housing within the public sector.

“It’s a budget which delivers a council tax increase which is well below the rate of inflation. In fact, in real terms, it continues to be amongst the lowest it has ever been.

“And it’s a budget which enables us to continue the substantial programme of council house building and affordable housing which we have been providing as an authority over recent years, in addition to substantial amounts of capital investment throughout the town.”

As well as the £6m for investment in temporary housing, the budget will include £150,000 to tackle lake erosion in Tilgate Park – money the park will have to repay.

Duncan Crow, leader of the Conservatives, acknowledged that the council’s finances were ‘not in bad shape’ and the decision to draw on reserves was ‘the right one’.

But he added: “While I’m not going to oppose any of this year’s proposed council tax rises – because I do see the need to fund the services as we come out of the pandemic – I do think in future years we need to rein in those levels of council tax rise and to help our residents with the cost of living.”

One-third of the council is up for election in May, and Mr Crow spoke with one eye on the leadership when he told the meeting he would be aiming to freeze council tax next year.

Laying down a marker that there ‘will need to be some different directions of travel in future years’, he announced that the Conservatives would abstain from voting and would put forward ‘a fairer and more sustainable budget next year’.

Karen Dunn , Local Democracy Reporting Service