Council agrees responsible and prudent budget

Enfield Council agreed an increase to Council tax bills by 3.9% for Council services at a full Council last week.

Council leader, Mike Rye said: “After making £10 mil in efficiency savings, we have been able to fully fund front line services and keep Enfield council tax bills among the lowest in outer London.

“This means 11 pence a day extra for the average council tax payer for millions more on education, care for our elderly, cleaner streets and weekly bin collections.”

The Enfield element of the average Band D Council Tax is now £1073.70 plus £309.82 from the Mayor’s GLA precept. Highlights of the budget include:

£4 million extra for adult social services

£10 million to improve Enfield’s roads

£23m investment to improve our schools

Cllr Rye said: “We would have loved to cut bills this year for hardworking council taxpayers but it has been impossible to achieve due to the ridiculous damping mechanism unfairly imposed on Enfield by the government.”

Cllr Rye was referring to the damping system introduced by the government to ensure all councils receive a minimum level of funding, even though it may be more than they are assessed as needing. It means the borough loses £5.5 mil from its funding – equal to 5.5% of the Council Tax - even though Whitehall has assessed the borough needing the money to pay for services.

Cllr Rye dismissed calls to raid the reserves to freeze council tax.

Approximately £50 million is earmarked for future planned investment in IT services, service improvements such as roads and street lighting, insurance and maintenance of Council buildings. £10 million is kept back to enable the council to address unforeseen circumstances.

Cllr Rye said: “The Council has been praised by the Audit Commission for our use of resources, which is evidence that a decision to keep healthy reserves and balances is prudent.

“A raid on the reserves would have been highly irresponsible. It would have expose the Council in an unpredictable and volatile economic climate and would limit our ability to pay for unforeseen costs, such as £2.2 million of social care costs imposed on the Council by the PCT, which has put £20 on the average council tax bills.

“In this light, a 3.9% increase is a balanced, responsible and sensible proposal which will enable the Council to continue in its quest to deliver excellence services for our residents.”

This document was last updated on 2008-03-03 15:50:29 published by the Communications team. Document Reference:LBE_132446