Trafford council tax goes up but authority still faces £15m budget gap

Trafford council is set to have a £15m budget gap going into 2022-23 financial year.

Council tax will go up and a raft of service savings are planned to ensure this gap is smaller than it otherwise would have been after Wednesday night's budget was passed.

The borough's overall budget will be increased from £179.47m to £192.57m this financial year - an uplift of £13.1m.

Before any tax increases of service savings, the council's budget gap would have been £20.14m - including £7.1m from covid-19 pressures.

To fund the overall budget increase and plug much of the budget gap for this financial year, Trafford council will increase council tax by 2.99pc.

This means the average Band C home in the borough will go from paying £1528.95 to £1,574.67 a year.

Over £5m is also being shaved off the council's costs by trying to improve the efficiency of its services.

A huge £1.468m worth of savings are needed in the borough's children's services, already struggling after an 'inadequate' Ofsted rating in 2019, which is set to be achieved by a staff restructure and a review of looked after children's placements.

The borough's adult services are also set for a trim, with £319,000 of savings planned - to be achieved from tackling adult smoking rates, obesity rates and making learning disability supported living accommodation contracts more efficient.

A further £2.375m of savings is coming from the council's 'Places' department, which includes everything from waste disposal, parking charges and electric vehicles - which will come from energy savings, improved recycling and increasing the cost of a sports ground safety certificate.

The council is set to approve a £50.52m increase in its prudential borrowing to support its overall budget - as