Three Sussex councils have announced how much more council tax they intend to charge from April.
Both East and West Sussex County Councils will raise tax by the maximum allowed 4.99% – 2% of which is for social care.
In West Sussex, this will bring its share of the annual Band D bill to £1,800.54 – a rise of £85.59.
In East Sussex, the county council’s share of the Band D will be £1,867.05 – a rise of £88.74.
Meanwhile, Horsham District Council is putting up its portion of the council tax bill by 2.74% – which for a Band D bill will increase it by £4.67 to £174.95 a year. The special charge – which goes to parish and neighbourhood councils – will rise by 9.1%, or by £3.38.
East Sussex will be forced to dip into its reserves to balance the books in a budget set to be approved next month at its full council meeting.
Council papers say the savings proposed will be “significant and difficult”. They are expected to include new savings of £13.5 million in 2025/26 and would include the proposed cuts to adult social care, which were put out to public consultation last year.
In all, savings within the council’s adult social care budget — which include proposals to close a number of day services for older people and people with learning disabilities — are expected to account for around £7.42 million of the overall savings in 2025/26.
Further savings of £3.239 million are expected to come from the council’s children’s services budget. Council papers say around half of this figure (£1.593 million) is expected to come from changes to who looks after children in care. The council says it intends to find this money by reducing the overall number of children placed into care and to find ways to place more of those who are with foster families rather than “high cost” residential homes.
The council says it also intends to find savings of £1.06 million in its business services budget, £1.553 million in its communities, economy and transport budget and £233,000 in its governance services budget. These savings include plans to increase on-street pay and display parking fees by five per cent and staffing cuts.
Even with these savings, the council says it would still expects to face a significant shortfall, which will require drawing £11.4m reserves to set a balanced budget. The council says this money will need to be drawn from “service specific reserves”, which officers warn will constrain the council’s ability to manage future financial risk and known liabilities in these areas.
In West Sussex, the council has not had to use its reserves and says there will be no cuts to front line services.
The council’s net revenue spending – day-to-day costs – will be £827m. This is an increase of £58.7m on 2024/25. Additionally, £118.6m will be invested through the capital programme into roads, highways, schools, operational estate and IT and digital infrastructure.
Adults services is the most costly of services run by the council. It’s budget will increase to £292m – up from £263m in 2024/25.
A report to the cabinet said that some 95% of that would be spent funding the social care needs of c8,500 residents who meet the national eligibility criteria set out in the Care Act.
Horsham’s rises should receive final approval at a meeting of its full council on February 24.
In order to balance the budget, £900,000 of savings had to be made. Increases in charges for things such as parking and waste serves also helped to balance the books.
New projects in the £13.3m capital programme include £100,000 for the de-silting of Storrington Mill Pond, £100,000 for ramp repairs at the Swan Walk car park, £130,000 for a play area replacement and improvement programme, and £80,000 for enhancement work on the paths in Horsham Park.
