Plymouth City Council wants you to help it save millions of pounds

Plymouth residents are being asked to give their views as the City Council works on balancing its budget for next year in the face of ongoing challenges caused by rising costs and demand for services.

The cabinet has agreed a draft Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) that will guide the council’s work to address the cost pressures, maintain local services and continue delivering the priorities for the city.

The five-year plan, which projects the resources available against the costs, sets out the measures the council is already taking to ensure it can deliver vital local services in future years.

It is guiding work to ensure a balanced budget for 2025/26 can be set in February and as part of this, the council is inviting feedback from residents and businesses on the key themes and priorities in the plan.

A Plymouth City Council statement said: "While we are still waiting for the local government finance settlement from central Government, we are currently projecting a £3.8 million shortfall in the funding we need for deliver services in 2025/26. This gap will need to be closed so we can set a balanced budget in February.

"It is encouraging that the new Government has announced an increase in core funding for local government and has committed to multi-year funding settlements in future years, which will make planning ahead easier.

"However, due to the ongoing pressures we are facing, we are currently anticipating having to take decisive proactive measures to reduce costs and spending to avoid a projected shortfall in funding that – without action – will reach £22.7 million by 2028/29."

Councillor Mark Lowry, Cabinet member for Finance, said: “While we are very encouraged that the new Government has already announced that it will be increasing the core spending power of councils next year, and has made a firm commitment to provide councils with multi-year financial settlements in future, we cannot afford to underestimate the challenges that still lie ahead.

“There’s no question that despite this positive change in approach and the willingness to address longstanding systemic problems that face all councils, the financial outlook will continue to be tough. There aren’t any quick solutions to our biggest challenges, not least the ongoing cost and demand pressures in social care, homelessness and special educational needs.

“We have been working hard to stabilise budgets and tackle these pressures and our medium-term financial plan aims to ensure our we have a sustainable approach to maintaining local services and continuing to deliver the top priorities for the city.

“I would encourage people to give their views on our priorities and plans and to suggest ideas for saving money as we continue working on our draft budget for next year.”

People can give their views by visiting the council's consultation portal: Budget Engagement 2025-26 - Details - Keystone

How Plymouth City Council proposes balancing the books and protecting services

The plans to protect valued local services by reducing costs and achieving savings include:

Efficiency

• Driving greater efficiency in everything we do, including reducing ‘back office’ costs of running the Council.
• Ensuring the departments running our services absorb the increased cost of rising demand and inflation through proactive management action and making efficiencies.
• Investing in robotic process automation technology to improve efficiency and turn data into intelligence.
• Continuing to find new ways to provide services, joining up with partners wherever possible and making best use of the Council’s assets.
• Using additional grants for social care announced by the new government.

Investing to save

• Tackling the high costs of providing temporary B&B accommodation for homeless families by investing in accommodation that we own. This will help save more than £1m a year.

Demand management and recuing reducing reliance on external social care placements

• Working proactively to reduce the cost demand pressures in children’s services and homelessness by proactively supporting families before their position becomes a crisis.
• Addressing the rising costs caused by a 15% increase in children and young people in Plymouth with an Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP) since 2021/22 by expanding capacity in our special educational estate, reducing reliance on independent special school places and improving capacity in mainstream schools.
• Looking at becoming a direct provider of residential care for children to reduce the costs of placements. Due to the national demand for places these costs can be very high.

Making best use of our assets

• Reducing our own office accommodation costs by exiting office buildings, generating funds from the properties and disposing of assets that are not required. For example, Midland House in the city centre has been vacated and the former register office on the Hoe has recently been sold.

Growth and income generation

• Continuing to drive growth in Plymouth’s economy. Supporting and creating jobs helps maintain income to support local services.
• Continuing to generate income through the Property and Regeneration Fund, which to date has seen £205m invested in 27 properties that have generated a net income return of £21m over eight years.
• Increasing fees and charges in line with CPI and inflationary pressures annually.
• Maximising grants and income wherever possible. As a city we have been very successful in attracting funding to invest in the city’s infrastructure.

Council Tax and social care precept

The Government funding models for local government assume that councils will be raise Council Tax at up to 3% each year and help address pressures in meeting their social care responsibilities by increasing the adult social care precept by up to 2% a year.

This assumption has been incorporated in our draft Medium-Term Financial Strategy.

Join PlymouthLive's WhatsApp community for top stories and breaking news sent directly to your phone

PlymouthLive is now on WhatsApp and we want you to join us. Once you sign up for our updates, we'll send the latest breaking news and biggest stories of the day straight to your phone.

To join our community, you need to already have WhatsApp. All you need to do is click this link and select 'Join Community'.

No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the PlymouthLive team.

We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like.

To leave our community click on the name at the top of your screen and choose 'Exit group'. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.

Click here to join our WhatsApp community.