Your guide to Council Tax
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How we spend our budget - A message from Cllr Tracey Dixon, Leader of the Council
Your council tax goes towards providing public services right across South Tyneside.
Day in, day out, you interact with the services we provide. The roads you travel on, the paths you walk on, the lamps that light up our streets, the parks, beaches, or open spaces you might visit, and many more. From the minute you step outside your home council services and the people who provide them are doing all they can to help you live a happy, healthy, and fulfilled life.
Your council provides a wide range of services for around 150,000 people in South Tyneside whilst tackling some of the biggest and most fundamental issues in society and providing a safety net for those who need it most. We are here to support through hardship and crisis whilst still providing the vital services that you rely on like bin collections, customer services, leisure services, children's and adult social care and much more. Providing high quality services for people across the borough is something that we pride ourselves on.
We know that the current cost of living crisis is creating intense pressures, and we will continue to support you wherever we can. We have enhanced our welfare support provision and we
currently support 17,900 households through our council tax support scheme. You can find out if you are eligible for this support on page 9. In addition, we have agreed an additional £100 Council Tax rebate for households on low income.
The money we spend comes from council tax, business rates and paid services as well as the government grant we receive each year. Government funding has not kept pace with levels of inflation, putting huge pressures on our finances. Just like everyone else, the council is experiencing increasing costs and demand. The council cannot run a deficit like other organisations. If we do not increase the amount of money coming into the Council, we would simply have to stop providing the services which our communities rely on.
This year, the budget includes an increase in Council Tax of 4.95%. 2% of this increase relates to the Government's adult social care levy, which is ringfenced for those services supporting our communities who need it most. Adult and children's social care continue to be our biggest areas of spend and account for over 70% of our discretionary budget.
We also seek external funding streams to support the funding of the capital investment programme. We've already been successful in securing millions for the borough from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, a replacement for European Funding.
The way we allocate and spend the Council's budget is guided by our residents and businesses and the priorities you have shaped in the Borough's 20-year vision and new strategic plan.
Our five ambitions are to see you financially secure, healthy and well throughout your lives, connected to jobs, skills and learning and being part of strong communities. Underpinning all this we will target support to make things fairer and direct help to those who need it most.
With limited funding available to us we work relentlessly to bring in additional money to the borough so that we can progress innovative projects and schemes to improve South Tyneside in the longer term. Our capital assets like buildings, leisure centres, community facilities, coastline, parks, and open spaces are there for you to enjoy now and safeguarded for future generations to come due to our continued investment.
As a Council, setting a balanced budget is one of the most difficult but important responsibilities we have. Each year, we weigh up pressures including increased demand for services, reduced central government funding, and competing commitments, priorities, and ambitions. This year, our Vision and ambitions, a result of intensive engagement with thousands of residents, businesses, partners, Council employees and elected members, provides us with renewed purpose and focus to deliver for the people of South Tyneside.
Councillor Tracey Dixon
Leader of the Council