Budget special 2009/10
Your budget questions answered
Q1. Is it true that you are making £32 million of new spending cuts over the next three years? That makes £61 million of cuts since 2006 – one third of the council’s budget.
A. We are proud of our record in reducing council waste and inefficiency but this claim exaggerates our success. While it is true that we have made savings on this scale, we are also spending more on many of the services residents most value, such as more beat Police, better parks and schools. Our budget for 2009/10 is £9 million higher than in 2006/07.
Q2. Is it true that you did not pass on the VAT cut from 17.5% to 15%?
A. We passed on virtually all the VAT changes in December 2008. The only area where we did not was for sports and leisure charges where the cost to taxpayers for making the change would have been far greater than the £2,900 temporary benefit. The £2,900 has been given to a local athletics charity instead.
Q3. Have you increased fees and charges?
A. There are some new charges for things like events in parks, charges to utility companies for late completion of road works, pre-planning fees and penalty notices for things like dog fouling and littering. We benchmark our prices against other London authorities when setting the annual increase. Our charges are not expensive compared to the rest of London.
Q4. Why have you introduced charges for home care?
A. We provide excellent adult social services. H&F is one of only eight London councils and just 25 nationally to offer support to residents in the ‘upper moderate’ band of need. Most councils do not offer care to that band at all. Our £10 per hour home care charge is below the £13 an hour London average. 182 H&F residents are eligible for a service they would not be entitled to at all in most other authorities. Two thirds of our service users will not have to pay at all. Council tax hits those least able to pay the hardest, so cutting tax helps this group of residents more than most. Raising tax would hit them hardest.
Q5. Why are you increasing charges for meals on wheels?
A. We provide around 94,000 meals a year. The charge of the service has increased to bring it into line with other boroughs, but it is worth noting that the majority of neighbouring boroughs charge markedly more than us and some do not provide a service at all. Demand for meals on wheels has been declining steadily since 2002 from 600 service users in 2002 to 320 in 2008. The proposed price for a hot delivered meal in H&F is £3.80. This compares favourably to charges in neighbouring boroughs which can be as high as £4.75 for a frozen meal.
Q6. I have heard the council is planning to cut £1 million from schools’ funding in the next three years, which could mean schools have to sack teachers. Is this true?
A. The schools budget is 'ring-fenced' which means this claim cannot be true. Schools will not have to cut teachers. We have made the services the council provides to schools more efficient and this is reflected in a £200,000 budget reduction. The £1 million figure comes from adding together columns in the budget paper which are cumulative savings - i.e. over the three years, the total saving will be £400,000, not £1 million.
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Page last updated: 27/03/2009
