Council Tax freeze proposed for East Cambridgeshire

East Cambridgeshire District Council is to unveil a balanced budget for 2015/16 and 2016/17 which will include a proposed council tax freeze for its residents this year.

The announcement follows a significant reduction in management costs and the ongoing success of the District Council’s medium term financial strategy which has continued to deliver savings for the authority.

This has allowed the Council to save nearly £3/4 million in the current financial year from a net budget of £8.79m.

While extra support is planned to help Ely Soham Dial-a-Ride, the Community Land Trust programme and the Council’s ‘Invest to save’ programme, the savings made have meant the authority’s reserves have remained untouched.

These actions and future forecasts have allowed the Council to propose freezing the 2015/16 council tax in order to qualify for the Government’s Council Tax Freeze Grant.

At Finance & Governance Committee this week, members will be hearing the measures which have been taken to allow the Council to make this decision.

Councillor James Palmer, Leader of East Cambridgeshire District Council, said: “In 2014, we made a number of tough but necessary decisions to create not just a new organisation but a new Council. As Members, we have seen the challenges of the future and the forecasts of how the Government funding will continue to fall. This is why we have driven the process to discuss and tackle the challenges we all face. We have streamlined the structure of the authority to maximise the talents of staff and create a can do attitude, we have started to process of reducing the number of Councillors and we have looked at working with others to get best value for money.

“All this hard work has ensured we are able to present a balanced budget not just for this year but we also estimate we’ll be able to balance our budget the year after too. This is a fantastic achievement – it means we are able to freeze our portion of the Council Tax bill for 2015/16. At a time when many people are striving to make every penny of their budget count – we feel it is only right that we do our bit to help. There will no doubt be challenges ahead but we will continue to ensure this Council is in the best position to meet them head on.”

The recommendations made by the Finance & Governance Committee will go to Full Council in February to be discussed by all members.