East Herts Budget 2023/24
We need to save around £800k next year, rising to £5m over the next three years. This is set against a backdrop of already having saved £4.5m since 2020.
For more than a decade, we have continued to find efficiencies, and we will redouble our efforts again as we go into next year and beyond, delivering on the priorities of our communities.
Investment in our communities
Over the next two years we will be investing £1.77m of new money from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund directly into local communities and businesses. The funding will help deliver our cultural strategy through making additional grants available to local groups; the climate change strategy by investing in green technology; our town and village centres through new infrastructure; and businesses through grants to encourage expansion and new start-ups.
We will also invest in new technology to create easy online access to services so residents can do everything they need 24/7. Over the next five years, our planned £94m investment in capital projects will deliver new culture, leisure, and employment opportunities to stimulate the local economy and ensure East Herts remains a great place to live, work and spend time.
Our proposals
We are proposing a below inflation council tax rise of 3% to help us keep up with the rising cost of providing services. This would mean an average Band D household paying £3.65 a week (£189.61 a year) for East Herts Council services1.
The full proposals can be found on our website. The report will be scrutinised by the council’s Audit and Governance Committee on 24 January, ahead of the Executive on 14 February, and final approval by Full Council in March.
1.East Herts Council Tax of £3.65 a week goes to fund the following services: culture including Hertford Theatre; leisure, parks and playgrounds; parking; housing benefit and welfare services; preventing homelessness; housing strategy; environmental health – including food safety, pollution and pest control; licensing – including alcohol, public entertainment, taxis; refuse, recycling and street cleansing; development control; planning policy – including conservation and listed buildings; environmental initiatives; economic and community development; local tax collection, local land charges; elections; and emergency planning.
