Investing in our communities, protecting services and balancing the books

Cllr Robert Eggleston, Leader of Mid Sussex District Council, introduces the Council's 24/25 budget, which will be discussed and voted at this Wednesday's Council meeting.

On Wednesday Mid Sussex District Councillors will discuss and vote on the budget for 2024-25 and, as the Liberal Democrat Leader of the Council, I want to share with you what the budget proposes and the background to it.

Across the country, local government finances are in crisis. Many councils are having to make drastic cuts to services and some authorities have even declared themselves to be effectively bankrupt. For over a decade, local government has suffered from underfunding by the Conservative government. At a time of rising demand for local services, new unfunded obligations and rising inflation, councils are having to work harder than ever before to balance the books. This is made harder for us because the four year Corporate Plan we inherited from the Conservatives in May 2023 has a £12m gap between income and expenditure.

The government caps the amount Council Tax can be raised by and for district councils like us it is 2.99%. As we all have experienced, inflation has been running way above that for some time and we have to find £1.7m in extra inflationary costs alone. The MSDC budget will only balance this year because we can draw money from our savings and earn revenue from our investments but it is not possible to do that indefinitely.

Against this backdrop, we are keeping council tax rises at a below inflation 2.95% and without cutting services like many councils are doing. We are even managing to increase some of the services we provide so that we can better meet your needs.

We know that you care about the environment and climate change. That is why we are planning to expand our food waste collection trial in advance of the full UK rollout by March 2026. We are also preparing for that roll out by setting aside a pot of money for the next few years to make sure we can afford the new rubbish trucks and bins that the government will require us to provide but are not fully funding. If we don’t save for this now, we will face a bigger bill in 2026 which could only be funded by cuts to other services or running down reserves.

We are increasing our support for homeless and insecurely housed residents – we’ve seen an 11% increase in homelessness and 40% increase in people who are victims of domestic violence asking us for help. We are buying homes so we can provide more affordable and secure temporary housing in the district so people can stay closer to their family and friends rather than having to rely on costly bed and breakfast accommodation often further away. 

We know how much you value your parks and open spaces and so we are launching a 10-year programme of investment and improvement in them across the district this year.

And our community grants scheme has been relaunched with an emphasis on projects that help the community groups you are involved in with tackling poverty, inclusivity and sustainability in Mid Sussex.

Finally, our staff are the people who deliver these services for you, many of them are local residents and we want to look after them better. We are starting this by becoming a real living wage employer in April this year, which pays more than the national living wage. We also want to give more of our young people the opportunity to engage in interesting, fulfilling and well-paid work here in Mid Sussex and so we are introducing new graduate recruitment and apprentice schemes.

To pay for these services, we are having to raise revenue elsewhere in the budget. Consequently, fees and charges will increase by a small amount including in planning, parking, and garden waste collection.

Since the Liberal Democrats became the largest party on the Council last year, we have worked to change the combative culture of the Council and bring councillors from all political parties together so that we can build consensus when we are taking difficult decisions. That is why six months ago we asked councillors from all political parties to help us agree the broad shape of this budget, the first time that such cross-party working has been carried out. The budget that we will recommend to Council this week has been supported by all political parties at each stage.

Cllr Robert Eggleston
Leader of Mid Sussex District Council