Hertfordshire County Council agrees budget for 2024/25

Herts County Hall

Hertfordshire County Council has on Tuesday 13 February 2024 agreed its budget for the next financial year. The Integrated Plan, approved at a meeting of the full County Council, details how the council will continue to spend more than £1 billion on services that touch the lives of all residents and protect the most vulnerable while tackling expected shortfalls in funding.

To maintain, improve and protect services the county council is boosting spending by £98 million to £1.1 billion but, due to an estimated £57m shortfall in funding to pay for it, the council will use £11m of reserves in the next year while commencing an ambitious programme of efficiencies and service transformation totalling £46 million to deliver a balanced budget. To help bridge the funding gap, the county council will also increase Council Tax by 4.99% (including 2% to support Adult Social Care) in April.

The plan for the coming financial year outlines investments in services including:

  • Nearly half a billion pounds will be spent supporting 30,000 adults to live well for longer, including £31 million investment to support those providing care and increase care worker pay.
  • Just over quarter of a billion pounds will be spent on children’s services, including £18m of additional investment to ensure we can continue to support Children Looked After and children with disabilities plus £7m investment in the Making SEND Everyone’s Business improvement programme – £2m more than last year
  • £80m will be spent on highways and transport, including the continuation of the two-year £7.9m revenue funding for highways network improvements, with a focus on vegetation clearing, sign cleaning, litter clearance, drainage and footway patching.
  • £19m of additional capital investment in highways maintenance over the next two years to fix and protect Hertfordshire’s roads.
  • £2.7m capital investment to improve facilities and accessibility at Hertfordshire’s fire stations.

Councillor Richard Roberts, Leader of Hertfordshire County Council said: ‘From keeping Hertfordshire moving to helping residents who need the most support, we’ll be spending over a billion pounds delivering services across Hertfordshire over the next 12 months, focusing on what really matters to you.

‘Setting our budget for the year ahead has been hugely challenging, as we’ve dealt with the impact of rising prices and increased demand. We will have to use £11m of our reserves, plan for significant savings, and take the very difficult decision to raise our portion of your Council Tax by 4.99%. We’ve not taken this decision lightly, but it is necessary to ensure that we can continue delivering services and responding to issues on behalf of our 1.2m residents.

‘The recent announcement of an extra £10m from government is very welcome, and we’ll continue to lobby government for additional funds, particularly in relation to supporting children with special educational needs and disabilities where we continue to be significantly under-funded compared to other councils, and I want to assure residents that we’ll also do everything we can to alleviate our tax burden on you by making ourselves as streamlined and efficient as possible.’

The county council ran a public consultation on the proposed budget during January, and nearly 2,000 people gave their views on the plans, with a majority saying the council should prioritise supporting children and young people, keeping Hertfordshire moving, and caring for adults.