Budget approved for 2024/2025

Article date: March 6th 2024

Council approved the Medium-Term Financial Plan and Revenue Budget for 2024/25 that includes the largest capital investment ever made in the borough as well as spending on essential services that residents depend on.

The capital investment includes the transformational plans for St Helens and Earlestown town centre, supporting children's services provide the best care through Family Hubs improvement schemes at schools across the borough including Newton-le-Willows, Thatto Heath, Sutton and Eccleston among others. There will also be investment in highways including the final works on the Parkside Link Road.

Essential services such as adult and children's social care will be funded from the revenue budget, which includes funding from Council Tax, which was set with a 2 per cent social care precept to help meet the rising demands from these services alongside 2.99 per cent rise.

Councillor Martin Bond, Cabinet Member for Corporate Services, said: "Our Medium-Term Financial Plan sets out our plans that will help us to meet the challenges of supporting growth in our borough with a focus on using capital funding to support transformational projects that will build growth long term through investing in our town centres and key projects such as Parkside. We will also be investing in schools and children's services to provide young people with the best start in life.

"Despite this vital investment we still face challenges with our budget gap forecast to grow to £14.1m over the next three years. It means that it will impact on our Revenue Budget, which is the pot of money we pay for the day-to-day services residents rely on. While it means we have to evaluate how we can deliver these vital services, which might mean some difficult decisions, there will still be investment like £8.9m on maintaining the borough's 484-mile road network, £2m on street cleaning, £2.6m on looking after our parks and open spaces.

"When you consider though the vast majority of this Revenue Budget will go towards supporting adult and children's social services, spending will reach £67.9m and 67.8m each respectively, it puts into stark light the challenges we face to support the most vulnerable people in our society. We know times are tough for households and we have a package in place to support people who may be struggling to meet their bills. But the increase in Council Tax will help towards meeting the increased costs we continue to see, particularly in areas like social care placements."

See the full report here: Budget Report