At the annual Budget meeting of South Somerset District Council last night, councillors voted to reduce its share of Council Tax for South Somerset residents by 1.99%, after five years of freezing the level at £150.74 annual charge per Band D property.

This now means that the average Band D property Council Tax Level for 2015/16 is just £147.75, cheaper than six years ago in 2009/10 when it was £147.78.

SSDC has undertaken a re-assessment of forward risks, current reserves and forward commitments and concluded that £170,900 of confirmed New Homes Bonus money should be used to reduce the impact of Council Tax reduction on SSDC residents in the 2015/16 budget.

The Government’s own assessment of “Spending Power” i.e. the amount of income from Council Tax, New Homes Bonus, and other Government Grants per household, shows South Somerset having one of the lowest levels in England. Despite this, SSDC has managed to find savings of almost £5.4 million over the last four years with a further £1.1 million planned for 2015/16. This has meant that services have been maintained in the face of cuts of £6.5 million in Government Grant over the last few years.

At South Somerset District Council’s Full Council meeting, the budget for 2015/16 was also set. The budget includes:- • No increases to car park charges which were last increased in 2012; • Additional resources for local Economic Development; • Funding for CCTV cameras for the Princes Street underpass; • £522k for new capital projects.

Councillor Tim Carroll, Deputy Leader and Portfolio Holder for Finance and Spatial Planning commented “Although our main government grant has reduced by some 59% over the past 4 years, we have compensated for this by driving out savings, generating additional income and, most significantly, optimising the income from New Homes Bonus (NHB).

“SSDC, as with other District Councils, gets a sum equivalent to 80% of the annual Council Tax on newly completed properties for 6 years on each property. Although the recession has impacted severely on the house building industry, we have still managed to retain a higher than average housing completion record in the South Somerset area.

“We have frozen our Council Tax at the same level for the past 5 years. With the recent announcement from government on what we were likely to receive in the 5th years NHB settlement, we took the view at a late stage that part of this award could be used to mitigate the impact of Council Tax on our residents – this was a use that was explicitly outlined in the original introduction of NHB.

“Since the beginning of the recession, South Somerset’s approach was not only to continue to deliver statutory services like waste collection and planning, but also to maintain those discretionary activities like Leisure Centres, the local theatre, welfare advice, grants to Community groups and the voluntary sector and support to our high streets. Our residents place a high value on these discretionary areas and we were determined to maintain these wherever possible.

“Although we are continuing to deliver our services at the same level, the SSDC workforce has reduced by 100 staff to 502 over the past four years. The majority of the reduction is due to our Leisure Centres’ staff transferring into a Trust.

“We are confident that we can meet the future financial challenges even with the uncertainties of whatever national government emerges in May. Obviously, in the longer term, the picture may well change with the continuing austerity drive but we are satisfied that, as a debt-free authority, we have a sound financial situation for the next two years”.

Councillor Ric Pallister, Leader of the Council commented, “Despite the ongoing financial pressures on Local Government and the future uncertainties, this budget demonstrates our confidence that South Somerset's strong financial position, sound management and innovative approach to making savings whilst preserving services to the public, is paying off. It is right and proper that residents benefit when we are able, providing those front line services can be maintained and that our sound financial position is not compromised now or in the foreseeable future”.

Council Tax bills will start to be delivered to households early-to-mid March.