Rising to the challenge

From 2024/25 onwards, the Council is projecting a budget shortfall of £30.8m across the duration of our Medium Term Financial Strategy, to 2026/27.

As a council we have a proven track record in balancing our budgets and saving money. We’ve delivered substantial savings over the last 10 years, in part by transforming the way we deliver some of our key services. We also continue to do all we can to mitigate and reduce pressures on our budget, whilst introducing life changing ‘prevention’ services that help to reduce demand for expensive care.

We are working to keep children safe at home wherever possible and to get more children who need specialist care into long-term family-based placements, including foster families and kinship care. Family-based placements improve children’s life chances and cost the Council less.

Investing in our highways also helps us to boost the economy and deliver better value to the taxpayer. For example, we build major new roads and junctions that will support people and businesses. We’re also changing the way we maintain our 2,500 miles of roads to reduce costs and improve our service. You can see a wide range of achievements in our Annual Report 2022-2023.