What is a local council budget?

Unlike Government, we have to set a balanced budget by law. Each year, the 'cost pressures' are going up for the council. This includes more adults needing social care and the number of children with Education Health & Care Plans (EHCP). These are statutory services that we have to provide.

This year we are also experiencing extreme inflation, like many households are too.

In order to provide these services, we therefore have to make savings on non-statutory services to make our budget balance.

There is a difference between capital budgets and revenue budgets. Revenue budgets are things we have to spend on every year. Capital budgets are one-off, often big costs.

A lot of capital projects are funded by Government grants which have to be used for that specific purpose. Cycle lanes are an example of this as is Kingsway to the Sea and the Western Road Improvement programme.

This means if we didn't build these projects there would not be more money for council services like recycling and parks.

Our budget crisis is down to 13 years of Tory Government austerity where they are engaging in a controlled demolition of public services.

Many of these public services in other councils across the country have already been lost. And many other councils are facing even more stark financial challenges than Brighton & Hove. Councils like Croydon have had to issue Government with a Section 114 (bankruptcy) notice.

If we do not make savings, then they will be made for us by Government. Councils who cannot balance their books face severe consequences, which includes closing all non-statutory services including public toilets.

Council tax funds less than 20% of our services. But it is one of only a limited number of ways councils can raise money.

On top of making savings to reduce cost pressures, we are also raising council tax and our fees and charges, to replace the share being cut by Government. This means that each year council tax has to cover a higher proportion of the council's budget.

We rate our savings against a list of priorities:

• financial sustainability
• building community wealth
• tackling the climate crisis
• addressing housing & homelessness crisis
• supporting a diverse & welcoming city
• health & wellbeing
• Supporting those facing the impacts of austerity

This is a difficult balance to achieve and we acknowledge that sadly some of the savings will have a detrimental effect on communities. All savings proposed have an equalities impact assessment carried out and consultation is made with staff, trade unions, other political parties, residents, business and stakeholders such as the community & voluntary sector.

There are certain services that the council has to run by law (these are called statutory services). These are services we cannot cut, so the other services that are not statutory have to be considered. Examples of non-statutory services include public toilets and nurseries.

We have limited ways we can improve our finances. This year the Government have permitted councils to raise council tax by just under 5%. We are also able to raise our fees and charges (such as parking permits) and we can get some external grants (although these are mostly for capital projects rather than revenue. Some of the problem is caused by the reduction of the revenue support grant- the main government grant that councils use to fund services, known as the revenue support grant

There are some areas we cannot touch. We cannot touch budgets where a service is statutory (like providing care for children in care or adult social care). And there are other budgets where money comes in from Government but goes straight out such as schools funding and housing benefit.

Therefore this leaves us with the option of making difficult savings.

No, however are finances are in a bad state due to tory government imposed cuts and economic crises. A recent external report rated our finances as red, recognising the real pressure the council is under. We fear that a Section 114 notice (see above) is possible in future years, so we are making the difficult choices now in order to prevent the city going bankrupt.

Following extensive public consultation across the city it is clear that toilet closures are something residents want to prioritise, so we are proposing to take the money from the city's capital investment programme to pay for them. This means that some investments in that programme will have to happen later, and others not at all; not an ideal solution but one that in the circumstances we believe reflects the city's priorities.

Our first draft proposals included the closure of Bright Start nursery because the council no longer has the money to keep it open. However, by making difficult decisions on capital projects, we have ensured that the nursery will continue to be funded for one additional year. This means that all current children will be able to finish before starting school. No other proposals to cut nursery provision were made, but we will continue to look for better ways to deliver nursery provision to enable our nurseries to be more sustainable in the future.