Budget consultation 2024 - 2025

Thank you for your interest in our TogetherWe budget consultation.

Before giving your views, please read through information below which will give you an overview of our budgets and spending and will help you to give your views.

How we fund local services

In 2024/25 we will spend around £13 million (£13,368,000) on local services.

We will receive £8 milion (£7,858,000) in council tax to help fund this. We will fund the balance (£5,510,000) through business rates, other grants and New Homes Bonus.

The government has been reducing the amount of core government grant we receive every year to £114,000 and indications are that the amount of business rates and New Homes Bonus we receive will also reduce (although there is still significant uncertainty over future funding levels from 2025/26).

This means we will face significant and ongoing challenges providing the same level of services, and either need to make further savings or generate additional income to fund the services we deliver.

The two tables below show how our services (after fees and charges) were funded in 2010/11 and how they are planned to be funded in 2024/25 to illustrate the changes:

We estimated that our income would equal our spend in 2023/24 and 2024/25 however, we are facing cost pressures and currently have a projected budget deficit from 2025/26.

By 2022/23 we had identified £3.9 million of savings since 2015/16, however, we need to find more savings and generate more income, as further cuts to our funding streams are likely. 

We will ask you to give your views on savings and income ideas in the survey. Your responses will help in setting budgets for 2024/25 and beyond.

About your council tax

We only keep 9% of the council tax you pay (that’s about £188 a year for an average local home).

We pass the rest to Staffordshire County Council, the Staffordshire Commissioner - Police & Crime, Staffordshire Commissioner - Fire & Rescue and local parish councils (as shown below):

Our element of your council tax bill, assuming a modelled 1.99% increase (this is subject to approval by council), is used to fund the following key priorities (figures enclosed in brackets represent income):

We are amongst the lowest charging district councils in the country, so the services we provide are good value, when compared to many district councils nationwide.

In 2023/24, an average home in our district pays £188 a year for the services we provide, whereas the borough council with the highest charges collects £396 a year for similar services, (the table below shows compares council tax charged by district councils nationwide).

In order to offset increased costs and the projected funding gap in future years, we will consider increasing the amount of council tax we charge for our element of your bill and our medium term financial strategy currently models a 1.99% increase, however this is subject to approval by council.

The government allows the council to increase its share of the council tax. In 2023/24, the maximum increase for an average home was £5 per year or 3% - whichever is the larger amount.

A 3% increase is the larger amount for Lichfield District and this is projected to provide an additional £230,000 of income, which is near to the cost of say events and culture.