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Neidio i'r cynnwys
Neidio i'r cynnwys

Barking and Dagenham Council's Budget Consultation 2024/25

The tough financial situation

Like many local authorities up and down the country, we are facing a severe squeeze on our finances. This has been caused by rising inflation, with increased costs for services, especially in children’s and adult services, and the cost of energy and utilities. 

At the same time, Barking & Dagenham has high levels of deprivation and demand for services is growing as our residents face increasing hardship and financial insecurityfollowing the pandemic and alongside another winter with a cost-of-living crisis. 

What councils like Barking & Dagenham need is fair funding. We have one of the fastest changing communities in the country today. Our population grew by almost 18% between 2011 to 2021, and 20,000 more children call Barking & Dagenham home than a decade ago.  

Unfortunately, funding provided by the government just isn’t matching this growth which means we are 40% down on our funding since 2010.  

Supporting residents through tough times

Although our borough has always had its fair share of challenges, theare being amplified in the current climate, where one in four residents havless than £100 savings and almost half of all children are living in poverty. 

As a council, we cannot stand by and do nothing.  

That’s why we’ve rolled out a network of Community Hubs across the borough offering expert help and advice on people’s doorsteps.  

It’s also why we’ve worked with community partners to create a Cost of Living Alliance to support residents before they hit crisis pointproviding help with everything from financial aid and food through to warm spaces, energy and mental health support.  

The budget challenge

Our already overstretched budget is being pushed to the edge, but we are acting to control it. We already run an efficient, low-cost council. Since 2010, we have made £175m of savings, and we will find more. 

We need to make £11.6m in-year savings in this financial year, and around £23m savings in the next financial year (2024/25). 

What we’re doing

To bridge this gap, we are reviewing all our services and making sure we are getting value for money from every pound we spend.  

This includes taking a number of measures to immediately reduce our spending, such as a pause on recruitment, making staff savings and stopping all non-essential spending.  

We are also finding better, low-cost ways of delivering services, increasing income, and getting the best value from our assets.  

This is a really difficult time for local government and, like all local authorities, we will need to make some tough decisions to balance our budget over the coming months. We will consider all options. Nothing is off the table.  

Fighting for a fairer funding deal

However, ware clear that the way local councils are funded needs reform.  

For every £1 we spend, 70p goes on caring for the most vulnerable people in our community before we can even think of doing anything else.  

The numbers are close to not adding up and the government absolutely needs to do more to help.  

We will continue to press them for more money, but this issue is widespread. It isn’t unique to our borough and councils all over the country are finding themselves in a much worse situation than us. 

Thats why we are calling on the government to provide fair funding so we can deliver the services and support our residents need. 

Council Tax

Without further backing from the government, we are left with no choice but to raise Council Tax to help ease the pressures on our budget. 

The fact remains that everything costs more than it did a year ago, demand on our services has increased, but the money available to us hasn’t. 

Our proposal to increase Council Tax by 5% – consisting of a 3% general increase with a further 2% ringfenced for Social Care – will add around £1.40 per week onto the average band D property (excluding the GLA element) from next April.  

We understand this will not be welcome news and it isn’t a decision we will take lightly, however, since the government is refusing to help, we need to turn to you and ask for your help. 

Facebook Live Q&A


Residents can also tune in to a special budget Facebook Live Q&A with Councillor Rodwell, Leader of the Council and Councillor Twomey, Deputy Leader of the Council and Cabinet Member for Finance, Growth and Core.

Tuesday 16 January, between 6 – 7pm on the Leader’s Facebook page.

You can submit a budget question ahead of the session by emailing socialmedia@lbbd.gov.uk. 

Growing our borough for everyone

Despite the challenges, our focus continues to be on unlocking the borough’s potential to create benefits for residents. 

We’ve attracted huge investment including tens of thousands of jobs, homes, and new opportunities. 

London’s newest film studios will bring a multi-million-pound boost to the local economy and create thousands of jobs for local people. And our new relationship with the Corporation of London is bringing London’s three markets right here. 

Barking Riverside is one of the most ambitious housing programmes in the country, and it’s this exciting and ambitious approach to building homes that has seen our borough become the home of housebuilding in recent years, with one in five of all affordable homes in London built here in Barking and Dagenham. 

We have also agreed a groundbreaking partnership with the Seoul Digital Foundation, South Korea, and Connected Places Catapult, to launch a Smart Homes Innovation Hub in Barking. 

It will improve the energy and heating efficiency of existing homes in the borough – lowering costly bills for residents and also reducing emissions. Alongside this, there will be a focus on making homes safer, especially for our more vulnerable residents, through the development of health tech that can be used in the home and in the community.