‘Prudent’ increase to council tax in Worthing proposed

Plans to raise council tax by almost £5 have been described as ‘prudent’ and ‘reasonable’ by the leader of Worthing Borough Council.
Council tax billCouncil tax bill
Council tax bill

Later this month, a meeting of the full council is expected to increase the borough’s portion of the council tax bill to £247.41 for Band D homes – a rise of £4.86 a year or 9p per week.

For Band C homes, the increase will be £4.32 taking the bill up to £219.92.

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During a meeting of the executive on Monday (February 1), Daniel Humphreys said such decisions should not be taken lightly.

He added: “We certainly wouldn’t be doing our community any favours if we were to cut back on service provision right now.

“That certainly wouldn’t be the right thing to do by people and we do need to look to keep investing for the future.”

The meeting was also told that the council was in ‘a strong position to set a balanced budget’ during 2021/22.

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This was good news considering a £1.9m shortfall had been predicted in July.

A report from chief financial officer, Sarah Gobey, laid out how £647,000 had been set aside for a Covid contingency budget to pay for Covid-related risks and recovery actions.

Another £300,000, which had been budgeted for staff pay increases, was also held back.

The council’s net budget requirement for 2021/22 is £14,447,780, which is just over £1m more than in 2020/21.

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Mr Humphreys praised central government for helping to ‘steady the ship’ through the various grants received by the council, including emergency Covid- funding.

An extra £549,590 is expected to be handed over this year.

He also praised the council’s own budget strategy, saying the digital, commercial and investment programmes had all ‘come of age’ over the past year.

He added: “I think we can all look back with some pride on how well we were able to respond.

“We should also be very proud of the work that we’ve done, along with our communities, to help support the most vulnerable people in Worthing during Covid and the help that we’ve given to our local health service over the years and throughout the last 12 months to ensure they’ve been there to do their vital part.”