Budget provides funds to lead economic recovery in Devon

You would think that, with experience, it would get easier. Not this year, though, for very obvious reasons.

Not least that my colleagues and I have conducted almost all our public consultations and the discussions with our excellent treasury staff and senior managers via a screen instead of our usual face to face meetings.

However, it is a budget I am proud of and which I think will serve the people of this wonderful county well.

In 2021/22, we will spend some £580 million on the services we provide to around 800,000 people.

That includes an 8.3 per cent increase for adult care and health and a 7.8 per cent rise in spending on children's services.

There’s also extra money for potholes and drainage and £600,000 to add to the £1 million we provided this year for a hardship fund for those hardest hit by the pandemic.

I’m thinking particularly of people who’ve worked and earned all their lives but don’t have much savings and have found that, after being made redundant, they have had to wait before qualifying for universal credit.

You may ask why we have agreed above-inflation increases for adult care and children.

Unlike national Government, which can borrow to finance current spending, we have to set a balanced budget by law.

Even before the pandemic hit, we were facing an ever-increasing demand for services for vulnerable people and that has grown even more in the past year.

For example, more than 34,000 people in Devon are classed as extremely clinically vulnerable and, working with our partners and community groups, we have supported them as they have had to shield through the lockdowns.

Our income to provide these services comes from a variety of sources including business rates and Government grants.

But, increasingly, we are mostly funded from council tax.

So as politicians we have to tread a very fine line of making sure we have enough money to provide these vital services whilst not asking you to pay more council tax than is absolutely necessary.

Our budget improvements for the new financial year will mean the council tax bill for Devon's services will rise by 4.99 per cent - that's 1.99 per cent for our general services and three per cent dedicated solely to adult care.

For the average Band D property the council tax bill will rise by £71.82 to £1,511.28. That’s the equivalent of £1.38 a week extra or less than the cost of most Sunday newspapers.

It will help fund significant additional resources for adult social care and health, children’s services and highways and they are the things that you tell us matter most.

I’ve always said caring for the elderly and disabled, children and the vulnerable are our highest priorities and 73 per cent of this budget will be directed to the most vulnerable.

We have also made savings.

In my time as leader we have significantly reduced our workforce without wholesale redundancies and we have streamlined our management.

This budget contains savings on highways but not, as some political opponents have suggested, by cutting the budget for potholes. Indeed, there is £600,000 extra going into potholes and drainage.

But we have saved significant sums converting our streetlights to LED. And that’s a double bonus as not only have we saved money but we have also cut our carbon emissions.

We are all facing huge uncertainty and risk but this budget addresses not only the short-term pandemic but provides funds to lead the economic recovery in Devon.

Cllr John Hart, leader of Devon County Council (Image: Archant)