The amount Bracknell Forest Council wants to spend this year has been revealed – and its massive.

Bracknell Forest Council  is set to spend nearly £90m in the 2022/23 financial year.

In full, the council will spend £89,355,000, which was announced during a discussion of the council’s revenue budget proposals by its executive committee in December.

The revenue budget is used for to pay for the council’s day-to-day expenditure, which includes paying for staff and maintaining council-owned buildings and equipment.

A large part of the revenue budget is covered by council tax – which the executive is proposing to raise by 4.5 per cent.

This increase will be made up of a general tax increase of two per cent, plus a one per cent increase for adult social care precept, and 1.5 per cent adult social care precept which wasn’t levied last year, that the council can carry forward.

The only way council tax can be increased any more than that is if the council calls a referendum.

The amount of households actually paying council tax has increased according to figures, with 48,249 properties in council tax Band D or equivalent.

That is an increase of 595 households in Band D, which stood at 47,654 in 2021/22.

This means the council could raise £67.702m in council tax for the 2022/23 financial year.

This rise in council tax would pay for a mixture of council expenses, including staff salaries, building maintenance and the services it provides, such as adult and children’s social care.

During the December meeting, director of resources Stuart McKellar announced the council planned to spend an additional £4.4m in the new financial year to cover pay and price inflation.

Mr McKellar also said that £5.2m is proposed to be spent to address “service pressures” that the council provides, with the largest being in adult social care.

This money would go to the council’s adult social care department which is in charge of arranging care, contracting providers to look after people and dishing out blue parking badges to users.

The adult social care precept mentioned above is a tax increase that councils have been allowed to raise because of increasing adult social care pressures – namely an ageing population.

But even with an increase in council tax, there could be a funding gap of between £3m (£3.013m), due in part to the uncertainy around the amount the council will receive from central government.

In a worst case scenario, this figure could be even higher, at over £4m (£4.877m).

In order the plug the gap, the council’s financial department has proposed either increasing council tax further, requiring a referendum, or using money the council has saved in its reserves, which stand at £10.3m.

Mr McKellar did say the finance department had identified nearly £2.9m (£2,869,000) in savings across council departments to mitigate upcoming costs.

These figures are contained in the council’s revenue budget proposals document[https://democratic.bracknell-forest.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=102&MId=10443], which was presented to its executive committee on December 14, 2021.

The revenue budget proposals are currently undergoing a public consultation process. 

You can respond to the consultation on the Bracknell Forest Council webpage here. 

The consultation will run until Tuesday, January 25, with the final budget, including the proposed level of council tax for 2022/23, will be determined at a full council meeting on Wednesday February 23.