Council tax will not rise this year as you have told us this is important to you.
But in order to keep Council Tax as low as possible and meet cuts of £19 million from central government this year, we have had to take some incredibly tough decisions on what services we provide.
We have acted on the things you told us we needed to do:
- The Council is saving £1.1 million in the cost of senior mangers
- Councillors pay has been cut by 5%
- Council staff have had their pay frozen
- The Chief Executive’s salary has been cut by 10%
- We are sharing services with other councils to save money
But these changes and the others we have made to our back office spending do not meet the huge gap in our budget. We are not going to be able to do everything we have done in the past.
The budget conversation we held last year was our biggest ever.
Where we have had to cut services we have made sure that the money we continue to spend is focussed on the things you have told us are most important.
And we are continuing safeguard things like the freedom pass scheme, where we will spend almost £8 million next year.
We have also made sure that there is an extra £2 million to put into your top priorities, including:
- £500,000 more for cleaner streets
- £500,000 to buy extra police officers for Waltham Forest
- £350,000 for anti-gangs work
- £165,000 extra to clear up filthy front gardens
- £200,000 extra per year to open schools for summer