Council approves budget for 2017/18

Birmingham’s budget for 2017/18, was set last night at Full Council (28 February 2017), and will commit nearly £550million to services which protect and support adults and children across the city

Following one of its largest consultations, Birmingham City Council has not only made changes to proposed savings by £7.5million, but also committed more funding for vital frontline services.

Spending on adult social services will increase by £53million to £338million in total – including Adult social care (£317million) and the Supporting People budget (£21million).

Protecting children and ensuring Birmingham is a safe city for them to learn and grow is a priority – and £211million is being committed to children’s services (£31million), child protection (£162million) and the Travel Assist scheme (£17million).

There’s also a commitment to invest £379million in building affordable homes across the city over the next 10 years.

And after citizens made it clear how much they love their parks and libraries, the council will be spending £12million on its parks and set aside £22million for its libraries.

The consultation saw over 3,000 people respond and around 100,000 people engaged with during the activity to seek views on the proposals. Following this consultation a number of changes have been made to the budget, including:

• Reduced the proposed cuts by £7.5million, by using the £2.9million from the 1% extra social care precept and an additional £4.6million in new sources of revenue.
• Reducing the cuts to Supporting People by £2million and Parks by £1.2million
• Not making the proposed 2017/18 £750k cuts to the Museums
• Halting the proposed cuts to Post-16 travel budget

Councillor John Clancy, the leader of Birmingham City Council, said: “The financial challenges facing Birmingham City Council remain as difficult as ever. We have made savings of almost £600million since 2010 and expect to make a further £170million savings by 2021.

“However, even faced with the most challenging financial circumstances, we are still investing in our frontline services with more money going into priority areas – such as adult social care and protecting vulnerable children.

“Before setting this year’s budget, we engaged with more citizens than ever before – we listened and acted, and as a result have significantly reduced cuts we were planning to make to the Supporting People budget so we can better protect vulnerable and older people in our city.

“We also took on board the huge importance Brummies place on parks and museums, and have been able to considerably reduce the cuts we initially planned in these areas.

“However, it is more important than ever that we work more closely with our partners, community groups and residents to find new ways of delivering services.

“We are a young city and this gives us tremendous opportunities but we must galvanise that youthful zeal to forge a city of active communities, of innovation, creativity and social enterprise.”