The council set its budget and level of council tax for the coming financial year at a meeting of all councillors yesterday (4 March).

We faced a budget gap of more than ?50m for 2024/25 due to issues facing local authorities across the country including increased demand for children?s and adults? social care, rising homelessness presentations and inflation.

This has meant savings of over ?36m need to be made between 2024/25 to 2027/28 in order to set a balanced budget, which is a legal requirement for all councils.

In addition, the council, has been granted Exceptional Financial Support (EFS) from the Government of up to c?66.143m ? ?25m for the current year, 2023/24, and ?41.143m in 2024/25. EFS is not additional funding from Government but allows the council to use capital resources, including from asset sales, to fund revenue costs for services.

The council?s element of the Council Tax will increase in 2024/25 by the full 4.99% indicated by the Government, made up of 2.99% Council Tax and a further 2% precept specifically towards Adult Social Care costs.

Local government in this country is facing an unprecedent financial crisis. Nottingham was one of 19 councils confirmed by the Government as needing EFS to balance their books. Seventeen of these are councils with social care responsibilities like Nottingham, highlighting the huge pressure we are all under to meet the rising cost of vital care services for our most vulnerable people.

The council?s financial reserves have been impacted by decisions it has made in the past and this has affected our financial resilience. However, since 2013/14, the council?s Revenue Support Grant (RSG) from Government has reduced by nearly ?100m every year. Over the same period, Nottingham?s ?Core Spending Power?, a measure used by Government, has reduced by over 28% in real terms according to SIGOMA, the Special Interest Group of Municipal Authorities.

The council has been faced with having to make some extremely difficult decisions but we have a legal duty to set a balanced budget.? Our focus will be on continuing to provide important statutory services but other discretionary services that we know local people value will be significantly affected by the savings. We will do our best as a council to mitigate the impact as much as we can. ?

You can see this is something which has major implications for Nottingham. Read more here?

Come along to the Old Market Square this Saturday (9 March) from 10am until 3pm to see and explore Nottingham City Transport?s (NCT) new electric buses.

The council and NCT bid for, and subsequently secured, funding for the new buses through the Government?s ZEBRA fund which aims to help local authorities transition to zero emission buses.

More here?

The Great British Spring Clean is back from 15 to 31 March and Keep Britain Tidy is once again asking litter-picking volunteers across the country to join their Big Bag Challenge, showing that the environment belongs to everyone.

This year the organisation marks its platinum anniversary and is calling on people to mark the 70th year by picking 70 items, 70 bags, or spending 70 minutes in the great outdoors litter-picking.

As a resident, school, business or community group within the Nottingham city boundary you can sign up to our Clean Champion scheme here and receive your free litter picking equipment.