Consultations
As part of our commitment to delivering the best services possible, we regularly consult with the community on a wide range of proposals and plans. We do this in a number of different ways, including the use of paper questionnaires, electronic consultation and public meetings.
Comment on the budget strategy for 2019/20
We welcome your feedback on the budget strategy which will be considered at the Council meeting in February 2019. To comment on the budget strategy proposals by Friday 18 January 2019, please:
- fill in the budget consultation 2019/20 online survey or
- email your views to the budget consultation team or
- send written comments to: Mrs Jenny Poole, Chief Finance Officer at Cotswold District Council, Trinity Road, Cirencester, Glos, GL7 1PX
The consultation is open to businesses and residents within the District Council area.
Background to the budget strategy consultation
We are updating our financial plans for the medium term and spending plans for 2019/20.
We have prepared a draft ten-year financial strategy which forecasts funding from central government, the impact of inflation and other cost pressures on the costs of service provision, Income from retained business rates and council tax.
The way local government is funded will change significantly from April 2020 as central government implements the following changes:
- Spending Review 2019 - which allocates government funding to various departments;
- Local government Fairer Funding Review which allocates local government funding from the Spending Review to individual local authorities;
- Changes to the scheme which allocates a share of Business Rate income to local authorities
- Reviews the New homes bonus grant scheme
These changes are making financial forecasting and planning past 2019/20 very difficult for every local authority. We have prepared some scenarios to indicate the potential risk to the Council finances of further cuts to central government funding post April 2020. Despite recent announcements of the "end of austerity", it is likely that central government priorities will be the NHS, Police, Adult Social Services and Children Services. We play an important role supporting these services but do not have direct responsibility for them. For this reason our forecasts assume there will be a redirection of funding away from District Councils. However, this will become clearer over the next 12 months as Central Government provides more detailed information and issues consultation documents.
For full details of key points of the budget proposals for 2019/20, please:
