Every year when we put forward a budget at Crawley Borough Council, the coverage usually focuses on the rise in council tax. While this is important, it doesn’t really explain what good we achieve with every budget that is agreed.
The increase in precept of 2.99% for the Borough Council (which represents £7.15 rise for Band D; or 14p a week) is in line with other nearby councils, which remains impressive value for money for everything the Borough Council provides locally.
This is a budget for people, for economic growth, for our community groups, for keeping our town clean and tidy, to invest in our valued public and green spaces, to keep people housed and our borough safer. This is a budget that is adding value in every way.
But this doesn’t happen by accident, it requires vision, competence and organisation to apply such funding to attain the successful outcomes you elect us to do. It is also why it makes a difference in who you vote to provide it.
And when we look at the comparison with how far we have come from even two or three years ago, what a difference that makes! We only have to go back that far when this country had a directionless Conservative government that was happy to hang councils like Crawley out to dry. No hope, no change, just one cut in national funding after another, to the point there was an existential threat to local government provision.
In terms of national funding, this is easily the best financial settlement that I can remember seeing in local government and for Crawley Borough Council in the 16 years that I have been a councillor here, which means that we can ensure that key services retain the capacity to carry out the work locally that we know residents want, which is very welcome. That wasn’t the case under the Tories, I can assure you.
Crawley has had a very good provisional settlement and increase of 33.8% over the three years of the settlement with 11.9% for next year. In summary, this amounts to about an extra million of general grant. We have also done much better on our Business Rates than forecast in the Budget Strategy with an increase of £2.2m.
Following on from the difficult savings that we had to make last year, Officers and the Cabinet have worked extremely hard to identify a further £865,000 of efficiency savings this year.
That the council is in a stable financial position given some of the pressures not in our control like temporary accommodation costs, is a tribute to our careful stewardship of the council’s finances. We have not only kept this Labour council’s reputation for financial competence locally, but successfully kept some of our community’s most important priorities safe from the cuts at the same time.
The budget gives much needed funding to provide the Council with capacity to deliver and improve against our priorities: building over 540 more council homes to meet Crawley’s acute affordable housing need, improving Three Bridges station, investing in Goffs Park, creating a Town Council for Crawley and transferring to the new unitary authority.
The exciting and worthwhile projects for the extensive capital programme will be an impressive achievement, particularly so in the face of the challenges we were previously faced with.
There are many exciting things being made a reality through this budget that will benefit and strengthen our communities, making Crawley Borough an even better place to live, work and visit.
This includes our decision on HVO fuel, our investment in the Kingsgate car park lift replacement, the Little Trees cemetery extension for next 30 years, building up our neighbourhood patch teams to ensure the seven full cuts can be maintained with confidence and taking effective action on hedge cutting.
Investment in athletics at K2 Crawley, plans for investment in our parks, green spaces and Zoo. Investment in Maidenbower’s 3G Pitch, as well as more solar panels at Tilgate Park. We can reverse entirely last year’s reduction in Strategic Grants which is great news for our third sector and voluntary and community groups.
Decisive and significant projects which will succeed in improving our public realm, investing in its appearance to attract external investors and stimulating the economy through spending on our infrastructure. Supporting retail, the hospitality industry and our Town Centre. Working with external partners to support the activity and prosperity that we all wish to achieve.
And perhaps most significantly given our declared housing emergency, getting local people housed, as well as invest in the homes our existing council tenants. The acquisition of housing from the open market to become council housing for Crawley Homes will reduce the council’s waiting list and get some of the larger family homes required.
Temporary accommodation acquisition to get a roof over people’s heads in crisis and investment to help support people living in those circumstances to find permanent solutions. The acquisition of land or dwellings, supporting local outreach to rough sleepers.
We have to respond to the challenges to retail and the town centre by boosting footfall and giving a variety of ways for people to enjoy the hub of our borough, that is why we will reinstate the budget for previous years for Town Centre events, as well as support our external partners through increased ability to provide sponsorship for valued events for our communities and supporting our business sector like STEM in the park.
This is good news – change is finally happening after years of austerity in local government, and we will embrace it for everyone’s benefit here in Crawley! Watch this space.
Cllr Michael Jones
Leader, Crawley Borough Council