The London Borough of Bexley is investing millions of pounds in frontline services, despite unprecedented financial pressures and impending cuts in funding from central Government.
This week’s Public Cabinet Meeting heard how years of effective financial management, innovation and transformation meant the Council could invest in frontline services. This was despite Government changes to the funding system for local government, which will reduce Bexley’s share of national funding and cut the grants we are due to receive over the next three years.
Councillor David Leaf, Leader of the Council and Cabinet Member for Resources and Transformation, presented the Council’s Medium Term Financial Strategy for Bexley for 2026/27 to 2029/30. The proposals include new investments in highways, playgrounds, libraries and community centres, as well as increases in funds available to support children and adults with social care needs and disabilities.
Cllr Leaf said:
Bexley is a great Borough to live, work and raise and family and our budget plans put more resources into local services. This will include funding to improve our roads and pavements, parks and playgrounds, libraries and community centres, as well as more funding for social care services so we can support the most vulnerable in our Borough. The investments that we are going to make in key frontline services that residents use, need and rely on will continue to make Bexley even better.
We can make these decisions to invest more into services because we are a lean and efficient Council, with a clear plan to transform services and innovate. While other councils are cutting back, we are investing in services because of our strong track record of good financial management and living within our means.
This is despite the Government changing the funding system, leaving Bexley worse off as our share of national funding falls. The Government has let Bexley down, but we are on the side of our residents”.
Next year’s budget is planned to include:
- more than £5m for Adult Social Care placements
- over £14m for those facing hardship through the Council Tax Reduction Scheme
- nearly £8m for prevention of homelessness
- £900k to provide travel assistance to growing numbers of children and young people with SEND
The capital investment programme would include:
- over £20m for the highway maintenance programme over 4 years, with total funding from all sources for highways to repair, resurface and restructure roads and pavements set to reach £30m
- £2m to improve local libraries
- £2.5m for playground improvements
- £1m for community centres
- £0.5m for the continued roll out of Family Hubs to support families in the Borough
- £750k for expanding our assisted technology in care provision
The Medium Term Financial Strategy presented to Public Cabinet this week (26 January) shows how the Council will be able to meet growing day-to-day service needs and deliver new investments through the capital programme.
Local authorities around the country are having to cope with unprecedented financial pressures, including inflation pressures across a range of services and in pay settlements. For Bexley these are heightened by a growing and ageing population, and an increase in complexity and cost of demand across services, particularly within Children’s and Adult Social Care, SEN transport and Housing.
To tackle these the Council – already lean in structure and focussed on delivering quality services efficiently - has taken a multi-faceted approach in developing its Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS), including:
- delivering structural efficiencies, modernising operations and enhancing resident outcomes through our transformation programme Future Bexley
- assessing the impact of demographic change, rising inflation, interest and pay costs alongside the identification of mitigations and saving opportunities, through a series of detailed reviews for all services not involved in the transformation programme
- reviewing the Collection Fund, Pension Fund Contribution, Reserves and Provisions