Mid Sussex District Council's financial report points to economic recovery

Mid Sussex District Council Cabinet met on Monday, June 6, to discuss the outturn position for the 2021/22 council budget and announced that the council’s year-end financial position is better than forecast in February.

Mid Sussex District Council said that the Covid-19 pandemic is still placing ‘significant financial pressure on local government finances’.

But Mr Ash-Edwards said: “It’s tremendously encouraging to see Council’s finances improving as we look to bounce back strongly from effects of the Coronavirus pandemic.

“During the pandemic, the council has used reserves to balance its budget and support our leisure centres while they operated below capacity. This has had a significant financial impact but was the right thing to do to support local services and put our residents first.

“Council Tax represents just 17 per cent of District Council’s budget and so we are reliant on income from service fees and commercial rents to fund most of our local services. It’s great to see those income levels increasing.

“This is a positive sign of economic recovery in Mid Sussex as a whole and we’ll continue to do everything we can do support the resurgence in our local economy.”

The District Council said that increased recovery in income levels was the main contributor to the improved financial position, resulting in savings of £385,000 against the budget.

Council-wide salary savings amounted to a further £93,000, the council added.