Residents urged to have their say on priorities ahead of Council's budgeting strategy for 2024

Residents, businesses and community groups across Sunderland are being asked for their views on the next City Council budget.

The council provides more than 600 services from adult and children’s social care, waste and recycling collections, to libraries and parks.

This year’s day-to-day services budget was nearly £760m (£759.8m).

However, due to the cost of living crisis, increasing demand for services, especially in social care, and uncertainty over Government funding arrangements, there is a funding gap of £17m for next year.

The council is planning to use £9m from its reserves to reduce the gap to £8m but over the next four years the gap is estimated at more than £50m.

Facing these challenges Council leaders want to hear from people as to what should be prioritised.

Cabinet Secretary, Councillor Paul Stewart said: "We cannot fill the gap and meet the savings needed without making some difficult decisions. In some cases, proposals we are considering will include changes to how we deliver some of our services.

"It is vitally important that we hear from you, as residents, on what you think about our suggested approach. We need to ensure we continue to create a city where everyone can live, work and play, while understanding what priorities are to help us deliver changes and see lasting impacts and improvements."

To enable people to have their say, the Council has opened an online consultation service which will run until January 7.

Planning for the next budget is already considering an anticipated council tax increase of 4.99 per cent. This is in line with Government assumptions and is composed of 2.99 per cent for helping fund day-to-day services and two per cent for the Social Care Precept.

Cllr Stewart said: "Regrettably, there was no cheer in the recent Autumn Statement for councils and there remain major uncertainties relating to Government funding and uncertainty on the state of the economy with significant inflation. These are alongside the increasing pressures on council services as demand and costs continue to rise for both adult and children's social care."

“Since 2010, Sunderland has lost more than a quarter of its core spending power (27 per cent) and yet more and more demands are being placed on it.

“Nonetheless, we have to plough on developing plans and possibilities for what could happen in the New Year and in years ahead, and we want to hear from residents too."

For this year, the allocated services budget of £759.8m included £201m (more than a quarter, 26 per cent) going towards adult social care. Ten years ago the adult social care budget was £114.8m and 17 per cent of the services budget.