WHAT?has been described as “a careful budget for challenging times” will be considered by Hampshire County Council’s cabinet when it meets on Monday.

Last October, the cabinet stressed the importance of protecting valued services such as school-crossing patrols, community transport and household waste recycling centres, and now it believes it can succeed in that.

Under proposals to be considered on Monday, cabinet members will be asked to approve recommendations to balance the budget for the coming financial year (2018/19) against a backdrop of increasing demand for social care from growing numbers of vulnerable children and adults, and rising inflation.

Hampshire County Council leader Roy Perry said: “The first thing to say about this report is that we have succeeded in retaining those local services that we know residents value. That is a remarkable achievement in the current climate and is down to the careful and long-term approach this council takes to its financial planning on behalf of the residents of Hampshire.

“Since agreeing specific savings proposals at the end of last year to meet the further £140m shortfall we face in our budget by April 2019, we have been working hard to explore alternative ways to deliver the savings in some areas. Consequently, I am very pleased that our proposals set out a way forward for us to continue to provide school crossing patrols, community transport, and household waste recycling centres.

“We are continuing to press Government to accept the longer-term solutions we have in mind for these areas, which could involve introducing some nominal charges for use of services like household waste recycling centress. I put that point to the new Parliamentary Under Secretary for Local Government, Rishi Sunak, when I met him on his first day in office. He told me he would consider it for the future, and that is an approach residents have told us they support. However, we have succeeded this year without having to go down that route.

“In the meantime, we have been able to identify extra revenue from areas such as our street-lighting contract where we have overachieved on our savings, reinvestment of one-off Government grant for bus services, and the money Government now presumes all councils will generate from increasing their council tax precepts by a further one per cent on last year.”

He continued: “In Hampshire, the proposed overall increase would still maintain the council tax precept as one of the lowest in the country, and below the rate of inflation since 2010/11, while generating £5.7m in 2018/19 and a further £11.9m in 2019/20, if the increase is again approved. This funding would help support these specific services as well as contributing towards some of the pressures we are seeing from higher numbers of vulnerable children in need of our care.”

Cabinet will be asked to recommend to the county council a total 5.99 per cent increase in the council tax precept for Hampshire County Council’s element of the tax, for the financial year beginning April 1. This equates to an annual charge of £1,200.96 for a Band D property – or around £1.31 extra per week.

Mr Perry added: “Three pre cent of the proposed overall 5.99 per cent increase will specifically go toward the social care costs from Hampshire’s growing population of vulnerable adults and older people, and is our way of helping the NHS locally, by helping people get out of hospital and back into their own homes as soon as possible.

“Hampshire households will continue to receive some of the best public services in the country, outstripping neighbouring authorities. This is down to the scale and capacity of Hampshire County Council and our careful stewardship of taxpayers’ money over many years – a responsibility we take very seriously, and particularly so at a time of immense financial pressure and growing demand for services.”

Alongside the revenue budget, the cabinet will also consider the capital budget for the coming financial year, and proposals for significant investment in Hampshire’s economy, jobs and the quality of the environment, totalling £530m over the next three years.

The funding in Hampshire’s infrastructure and long-term assets, up to 2020/21, includes:

n A proposed £146m investment in new and extended school buildings to ensure there is a school place for every child in Hampshire – providing a big boost to the local economy and jobs while also securing the high quality education of the county’s children;

n £97m set aside for major repairs, maintenance and improvements to schools and other public buildings;

n £120m earmarked for structural maintenance of roads and bridges;

n £133m scheduled for integrated transport schemes to improve access to key employment areas, and smaller local projects to improve safety and traffic flow on the roads such as Market Place Romsey (Test Valley) and Horndean access improvements (Havant). The programme includes nine major infrastructure schemes totalling £108.6m including Whitehill and Bordon integration works (East Hampshire); Stubbington Bypass (Fareham); Botley Bypass (Eastleigh); South West Basingstoke corridor improvements (Basingstoke & Deane); and BRT Eclipse Busway Phase II (Gosport); and

n Investment of £11m is also proposed to protect against the risk of flooding and for coastal defence – with two major infrastructure schemes scheduled to begin in 2018/19 in Buckskin, Basingstoke and in Romsey.

The cabinet meeting takes place at 10.30am on Monday (February 5). Final decisions on the budget will be made by the full county council on February 22.