Hertfordshire County Council plans £46m cuts and 4.99% council tax hike

Hertfordshire County Council is cutting £46m leaving it with a £1.1bn budget for 2024-25

Hertfordshire County Council says it will have to make cuts of £46m in the next financial year.

The Conservative-run authority also plans to use £13m from its reserves to help deliver a balanced budget, which is a legal requirement.

The proposals, which are out for consultation, would see an increase in council tax of 4.99%, two-thirds of which is specifically for social care.

The budget to be considered for final approval by the council on 13 February.

The council serves a population of more that a million people and has a yearly budget of £1.1bn.

Nearly half of that is spent on adult social care and just over a quarter on children's services.

The proposed budget for 2024-25 includes an extra £31m investment to support those providing care, and increasing pay for care workers.

The authority will also make £18m of additional investment available to ensure it continues to support looked-after children and children with disabilities, plus a £7m investment in the Making SEND Everyone's Business improvement programme - an extra £2m on last year.

In November, its SEND [special educational needs and disabilities] service was given the lowest rating possible by inspectors.

Council leader Richard Roberts says he will continue to lobby the government for more money

The authority has also announced plans to spend £80m on highways and transport, including the continuation of a two-year £7.9m revenue funding for highways network improvements, with a focus on clearing vegetation, cleaning road signs, litter clearance, drainage and footway patching.

It wants to spend £19m of additional capital investment in highways maintenance over the next two years to fix and protect roads, plus £2.7m of capital investment to improve facilities and accessibility at Hertfordshire's fire stations.

Conservative council leader Richard Roberts said: "Despite years of prudent financial planning, increased demand for services and rising costs mean we now need to access our reserves and make significant savings to balance the budget and ensure we continue to maintain, improve and protect services.

"We'll continue to lobby government for additional funds, particularly in relation to supporting children with special educational needs and disabilities, where we continue to be significantly under-funded compared to other councils, but we'll also do everything we can to alleviate our tax burden on you by making ourselves as streamlined and efficient as possible." 

Full details on Hertfordshire County Council's budget can be found here.