Liverpool City Council has confirmed its budget for the upcoming financial year, including additional funding to support transformation across key frontline services.
Due to the ongoing impacts of high inflation and the cost-of-living crisis, funding for demand-led services has been increased by an additional £24 million, on top of the expected £25 million that was established in the Medium-Term Financial Strategy in March last year. This investment will also contribute to improvements that support social services, children in care, tackling homelessness, and environmental projects.
The driving force behind the budget is to deliver for the most vulnerable communities in the city, whilst improving financial management. Included in this management will be to develop on the collection of payments, as well as making the most of new legislation to utilise derelict properties.
Some of the highlights of the additional funding include:
- £7.8 million – Supporting transformation activities to improve service delivery
- £3.5 million – Supporting improvement in children’s services, with this increasing to £4.8 million from 2025/26
- £1.7 million – Improving street cleaning over the next two financial years
- £1.5 million – For new Neighbourhood Model Services
- £1million per year from 2025/26 – Supporting homelessness services
On top of the further investment for improvement projects in the city, 6% of the council’s next expenditure budget will be put aside in reserve. This will come to around £37 million, improving resilience for the future.
Councillor Liam Robinson, Leader of Liverpool City Council, commented on the budget:
“Despite the huge financial challenges that the local government sector is facing, I am hugely proud of the work of the entire Council in delivering a budget which protects essential services and invests in many of the services we know people value the most.
“Our move to a new Neighbourhood Model of joining up services will make us more effective and responsive to issues raised by residents and Councillors, as well as enabling us to tackle issues with rogue landlords and anti-social behaviour.
“In addition to this, we are investing significantly in tackling the issues that matter most to residents, such as fly tipping, street cleansing and homelessness.
“We are also putting more money into improving our Children’s Services, to make sure we deliver on our pledge to transform the department into one of the best performing in the country over the next few years.”
Investment is possible thanks to a number of measures, including the delivery of major transformation programmes that are helping to make the council as efficient as possible. Through this, the council anticipates making £85 million worth of savings by 2025/26, with a significant amount of this being attributed to adult and children's social care improvements. By that same year, £18 million will be generated through income collection, as the council improves and streamlines payment processes.
The council is expecting to raise £235 million through a 4.99% increase to council tax, with this helping to relieve the burden put on the council by a £247 million adult social care bill for the next year. On top of the funding raised by the council tax increase, the raising of business rates will generate around £200 million for the council.
Cabinet Member for Finance and Resources Cllr Ruth Bennet, who is also Deputy Leader of the Council, added:
“We are only able to deliver investment in key services thanks to the hard work that has gone in over the last year to putting our financial house in order.
“The improvements we are making in improving our systems and processes, cracking down on debtors who can but refuse to pay, driving up the collection of Council Tax and business rates and a focused approach to contract procurement is already boosting our finances significantly.
“At the same time, I’m proud of the fact we are able to maintain welfare support for those who need it the most, as well as investing in our Benefits Maximisation team to help tackle poverty and our new Debt Recovery policy which also underpins that approach.
“This prudent financial stewardship reflects our determination to become an efficient organisation that delivers quality services which provide value for money for our residents.”
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