The government has announced the provisional financial settlements for councils for 2023-24, giving details of funding arrangements.
Executive director of resources at Lincolnshire County Council, Andrew Crookham, explained:
“We’re working through the detail given in the provisional financial statement and considering our budget setting for next year. In the autumn, the government announced additional funding for social care because of the specific challenges these services are facing, with increased demand and cost pressures.
“This settlement has confirmed our expectations to receive around £19m extra for social care. This additional money is distributed through a formula that recognises Lincolnshire as a low council tax base authority.”
Leader of the council, Cllr Martin Hill, said:
"Whilst the statement appears to show an increase spending power for us of 9%, that is reliant on us increasing the council tax by the full 5% - a 3% council tax rise and a 2% social care precept. We have an inevitable funding gap and political decisions will need to be made as to how to fund services next year.
“Much of our government funding is in the form of grants, and these can be taken away at any point, and this is not as secure as money from our base funding. So although the additional funding for social care is very welcome, I am disappointed that Fairer Funding has once again been kicked into the long grass until 2025 – having originally been promised in 2019. This is vital to securing long-term financial stability for councils.
"I'm also disappointed that our highways funding has not been properly addressed again. Having well maintained roads is so important for safety and connectivity in our rural county. Our residents pay their road tax and deserve to have roads that are up to standard."
The council’s executive will receive initial budget proposals for consideration in January, which will then be subject to public consultation.
Andrew Crookham added:
“As we expected, with additional costs pressures, the total funding from the government won’t be enough to run our services next year. We’ll be putting together financial options to be considered by the council’s executive early in the new year. With increased demand for services and inflation running at 10%, these are likely to include using reserves, increasing council tax and finding savings – or most likely a combination of all three.”