The leader of Bournemouth Borough Council has warned all services may be funded by council tax and their own revenue by 2020.
During the budget meeting last night Councillor John Beesley called the 2018/19 budget “the most difficult” to date.
This is because the council is receiving £54m less in “core funding” compared to 8 years ago – money that comes directly from the UK Government in the form of a Revenue Support Grant.
He said: “By 2020/21 Bournemouth is unlikely to be receiving any core funding at all, with all Council services being paid for locally”.
This money is used to pay for services like bin collection, filling potholes, and adult and children’s services.
A report presented during the meeting shows that in order to reduce the core funding to nil in 2020, there will be a further £10.5m reduction in funding spread over the next 3 years.
What does £10.5m get you in council services?
Bournemouth council currently spend:
The Local Government Association, a cross-party organisation that works on behalf of councils in Westminster, say almost half of the nation’s councils will not receive government funding from April 2019.
As a result councils, like Bournemouth, are looking at alternative ways to generate income, such as selling ‘professional services’ to other councils. This can be training, consultancy and legal services, amongst other things.
In order to plug the gap in funding, Bournemouth council have also announced a raise in council tax for 2018/19 by almost 6%.
