Like all councils, Hertfordshire County Council needs to agree a balanced budget every year. This means the amount we spend on services can’t be more than the money we have available.
We spend more than £1.2 billion providing services that our 1.2 million residents value and rely on from their earliest years to the later stages of life including social services for children and adults, roads and libraries.
Most of our budget is spent on services we are required to deliver by law, with 68% of the total on social care services for adults and children alone. These services continue to become more expensive because of increasing need and costs.
We continue to innovate to ensure we're working as efficiently as possible to reduce costs and make every penny count. This year we’re working to save £42 million on top of the £46 million saved over the previous 12 months. Since 2010, a total of £495 million savings have been achieved. However, we still expect to face difficult choices to balance our budget even if we were to increase Council Tax by 4.99% as we’ve had to do in previous years.
This is driven by the government’s plans to change the way councils across the country are funded. This could reduce the amount of grant funding we receive from central government by around £50 million a year by 2027-28. Before the government’s proposals were announced, we were forecasting a surplus in our budget by this date.
We're determined to set a budget for the next year which is both affordable and delivers the priorities set out in our new corporate plan. Our services touch the lives of every Hertfordshire resident, business and community so your feedback is vital.