Budget: Discussed and decided

The three hour meeting at City Hall (Wednesday 19 February) saw the budget backed with a vote of 44 councillors in favour and 17 against.

From April the Council Tax for day-to-day services, which raises around £16 of every £100 the council spends, will rise by 2.49 per cent. This is to help fund hundreds of city services from waste collection to parks and street lighting.

The Adult Social Care Precept will rise by 2 per cent and the council has joined with other local authorities to lobby the Government on reforming social care funding and to end this local precept.

Leader of the City Council, Councillor Michael Mordey said: "We have worked very hard to ensure this is a positive budget, which allows us to continue with our ambitious social and economic regeneration plans for the city, whilst ensuring we continue to protect and support our residents most in need."

The majority of city households are in Council Tax Band A and have a £0.99p weekly increase to help pay for city services and social care. The national benchmark Band D increase is a weekly city rise of £1.48p.

With increasing demand and cost pressures for adult social care, the 2 per cent precept is expected to raise around £2.6m. More spending on adult social care is a key part of the new budget with an extra £15.8m allocated for the next year.

While outlining a more positive settlement from the new Government, Cllr Mordey said that to achieve a balanced budget the council would be using £9m of reserves and continue to introduce and achieve more savings and cost efficiencies.

He said: "Raising council tax remains one of the most difficult decisions for all councils. However, if we don't raise it, we will need to cut services and reduce our investment into key priority areas.

"That would mean cuts in services to those most vulnerable in our communities and to the services which residents tell us are a high priority.

"Our budget proposals for next year confirm that we will continue to invest in our city. We will continue to invest to protect the most vulnerable people in Sunderland, and we will continue to invest in services that our residents tell us are important to them such as tackling anti-social behaviour and increasing community safety."

The council has a programme of ambitious investments of more than £400m over the next four years and more than £250m of this is programmed for the next year. Projects due for completion in coming months include the new Wear footbridge open for the hosting of the Women's Rugby World Cup, the Culture House opened, while a school buildings solar panel programme will get underway alongside further investments in the city's infrastructure.

Budget reports can be viewed at: Meetings and Events