Ever wonder why your council tax keeps going UP, while local services keep shrinking? 📉 🤔 You’re not alone.
​For Shropshire, this breakdown shows exactly what happens when local budgets hit a breaking point:
​🔹 Mandatory vs. Discretionary: By law, councils MUST fund statutory services like adult and children’s social care first, whatever the cost. Statutory services account for 75% of the council’s net budget, where costs have skyrocketed, outstripping the ability of grants and council tax to cover the gap.
​🔹 Declining Government grant settlements: Settlements haven’t been fair for decades. Often failing to recognise Shropshire’s needs – Shropshire has a high Demographic Dependency Ratio – more older and younger people than the working population in other areas.
🔹 Money shifted to urban councils: Labour government reduced the most recent grant by £8.8m (4%), shifting money to urban councils, while giving the council permission to raise council tax by an extra 4% (£8.8m) instead, transferring the burden from them to local residents.
🔹 The Magnified Pressure: Past debt interest payments, previous mismanagement of budgets, missed savings targets, failure to tackle structural deficits and wasted spending combined with shifts in national government grant allocations leave councils with no choice but to max out tax hikes while slashing local amenities.
🔹 The Squeeze on Community services: Non-statutory services—like sports facilities, tourism, economic development and culture—are squeezed out when cash runs short.
​Watch the video to see the visual breakdown of the budget squeeze in action!
