Sandwell Budget Consultation 2023

Overview

Sandwell Council want to hear residents’ views about the services that are most important to you, and where they should prioritise spending. Here is an explanation of the situation:

In last year’s budget consultation residents said their preferred way for us to achieve the required savings was to rationalise our buildings and assets, we have taken this on board and set a target saving in 2023/24 to look at ways we can reduce the running costs of the buildings that we currently operate from. This includes sharing our space with partners to generate more income and looking at running services from fewer buildings, especially where we have multiple buildings close together.

The Council is facing similar pressure to residents from inflation and rising costs. The cost of living crisis is also creating more demand for some council services. This means that difficult decisions need to be made when the Council sets its budget.

We have identified and delivering savings of over £30million in the last two years and our current Medium Term Financial Plan shows that further savings of around £8m will be needed for next year.

The Council spends around £318m on our day-to-day services, such as refuse collections, street cleansing, providing libraries and leisure centres and our adult and children’s social care services. We must meet all our legal requirements but can make choices in how we deliver some of these services.

Your answers to these questions will help to shape our budget proposals for the next three years.