Budget Consultation 2019

Overview

Since 2014, the Council has saved over £90 million in response to reduced Central Government funding. We have protected frontline services as much as possible; whilst investing in other areas to help us become more efficient and effective. However with a continued funding decrease and increasing demand and cost of services, the Council will continue to experience further challenges.

Havering Council is no longer in receipt of any general grant from central government.

Despite these challenges, we want the Council to remain ‘cleaner, safer, prouder’ for our residents, businesses and communities by providing an even better place to live, work and do business. For this, we need to prioritise and focus our limited resources effectively and develop plans to deliver our priorities within these financial constraints.

Why your views matter

We have developed a number of proposals that will support our delivery and we want to give everyone the opportunity to have their say. We are seeking your views on:

• The overall budget
• Savings
• Income generation proposals for 2020/21

We also want your suggestions on alternative ways to meet the financial challenge.

This consultation will ensure that the Council’s decision makers are fully informed of any relevant concerns before final decisions are made.

What happens next

We must in law set a balanced budget for the next financial year (2020/21) by the middle of March 2020 and have a strategy in place for dealing with the gap over the next three financial years that the MTFS has identified. The information gained from this consultation will be used to inform our budget.