Bolton Council’s proposed budget limits council tax increases while protecting the most vulnerable by removing £4m of planned cuts.
The draft 2022/23 budget would see council tax rise by a below-inflation 3.12%, lower than the optional maximum increase which was available to the council.
This includes an extra 1.13% on the adult social care precept which provides ringfenced funding to support vulnerable adults in our community.
Changes to Bolton Council’s element of the council tax are the equivalent of 63p a week for a typical Band A property.
The mayoral precept, which is decided by the Mayor of Greater Manchester, would take the overall increase to 3.8%.
Following the funding settlement from central government, the council is not putting forward additional service cuts during the 2022/23 financial year.
An additional £4m has also been provided to fund social care. The council will use this funding to protect our most vulnerable residents by removing previously proposed cuts to adult and children’s services.
Alongside this, an extra £1m of funding has been identified for highways projects together with £100,000 to improve parking near Moss Bank Park.
Bolton Council Leader, Cllr Martyn Cox, said:
“This is a challenging time for local councils with additional pressures to come with rising energy costs and increases in national insurance contributions.
“But we are determined not to pass these added costs directly on to Bolton households at a time when budgets are being stretched.
“While some increases are inevitable, we feel this below-inflation rise will strike the right balance needed to protect the services we all rely on.”
The proposed changes to council tax will be subject to a vote at the meeting of Full Council on February 16.
The Mayor of Greater Manchester is responsible for additional council tax precepts to fund the police, fire and other mayoral services.
The proposed increases to these rates will be discussed by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority on February 11.