Council budget agreed without reorganisation costs

Chelmsford City Council has set its budget for 2025-26

Chelmsford City Council has set its budget for the upcoming financial year, despite uncertainty over the costs of local government reorganisation.

Council members approved the budget, which will see its share of council tax rise by 2.96% – an annual increase of £6.55 for a Band D property.

The financial impact of abolishing the council and merging the city's services into a larger unitary authority covering more of Essex has not been costed.

The authority said the government expected councils to bear the financial burden of the changes, which "could be several million pounds".

Charges for brown bin collections are on the way

Earlier this month, Greater Essex was accepted into the government's Devolution Priority Programme following a bid by Essex, Southend and Thurrock councils.

It means that over the next two to three years, the 15 existing Essex councils will merge into possibly five larger unitary councils, although the boundaries of these larger councils and how many will actually be formed have not been determined yet.

Chelmsford City Council said the new system the government intended to use to calculate funding would be likely to reduce the amount the council received in grants and business rates, reports the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Chris Davidson, the authority's cabinet member for finance, said: "Council tax is a significant and valued part of our funding, but it's only paying for just over a fifth of the services we deliver.

"That doesn't even cover all those [services] we legally have to provide, like black bin collections, street cleaning and helping homeless families."

As part of the budget, the council will start to charge for green waste.

Davidson said introducing charges for brown bin collections helped fund services not legally required, such as swimming pools, leisure centres and the city's museum.

"With government support expected to reduce even further over the next few years and the cost of reorganisation unknown, the choice is stark – charge, as most other councils already do, or cut services," he said.