Conservatives unveil budget to Build Back Basildon Better!

The General Fund and HRA Budget for 2022/3 was passed at Full Council on Thursday

By Cllr Stuart Sullivan, Chairman of the Resources & Commercial Committee

The fact I have now presented the second General Fund Budget of this municipal year demonstrates the level of ambition and activity being undertaken by this Conservative Administration, as we make good on delivering our election pledges and more besides.

Our first budget in June 2021 began the process of unwinding the previous Labour-led Administration’s proposed follies, such as the multi-million pound 'Youth Zone' and Unitary status, amongst other things, and re-directed it towards the real priorities of our communities, such as the renovation of the Laindon Community Centre. Subsequent to that, this Administration not only began the process to implement the policies initiated by that budget, but added to it with the most ambitious estate regeneration programme the Borough has ever seen. This budget therefore builds on the work we undertook as soon as we gained administration.

I was, therefore, pleased to be able to announce that Basildon Conservatives will be freezing Council Tax this year; one of only two district, borough, unitary or county councils in
Essex to do so. This demonstrates this Administration’s commitment to efficiency and value for money for the taxpayer, while the £150 Government Council Tax rebate for Bands A to D will add significant relief to the tax burden of many households.

It was, of course, an ambition of the Administration to not just freeze Council Tax but to cut it, if possible. This, in fact, could have been achieved, but this Administration has decided instead to listen to the concerns of residents regarding the blight of drug-dealing and anti-social behaviour in their communities, and will therefore be allocating £400,000 from the revenue budget for the purpose of employing Community Safety Wardens to disrupt drug-dealing activity and ASB in our streets and on our estates.

This initiative will dovetail with the ‘Safe & Sound’ estate improvement programme to make a real difference to the everyday lives of the people of this borough. We therefore consider this an acceptable reason to forego a Council Tax cut, as we tackle this blight on so many of our communities.

"This Conservative Administration, in the space of eight months and culminating in this second budget, has sought to save the Borough from this nightmare scenario, and give its people a vision of the whole Borough as a better, safer, more attractive and prosperous place to live and work for the next 70 years and beyond."

In addition to this significant revenue commitment, within a total of £1.7m of new investments, this Conservative Administration will also be freezing car parking charges to support our local high streets, assisting with the funding of Basildon Side by Side to improve community relations, provide funding for a cycling strategy, a pilot pop-up café in Gloucester Park, a Christmas Santa in the Woods event in Langdon Hills, and upgrading the CCTV covering the Triangle and Felmores shops, to protect those community assets.

With regard to capital investments, within our total budget of £7.4m, we will continue to fund the renovation of the Laindon Community Centre to completion, as well as allocate £360,000 to continue our programme of repairing and upgrading community halls across the Borough.

We will also allocate an additional £2.7m to increase funding for our Car Parking Strategy, to help alleviate parking problems in our estates and increase parking provision in our high streets, to continue our commitment to support them, while generating additional revenue. Tangential to that, £80,000 will be allocated specifically to increase parking provision at South Green shops in Burstead.

We will also fund investments in our outdoor spaces at Great Berry, Wick Country Park and Kent View Road, while an allocation of £350,000 for Billericay will ensure a new skateboard park for Lake Meadows and new and improved facilities at Hannakin’s Farm and the High Street will be funded.

I can also confirm that provision has been made to cover potential costs as we continue to fight the disastrous high-rise tower block policy of the last Labour and Independent Administration in Basildon Town Centre, as we have previously pledged to do.

Concerning a different pledge, to defend the Green Belt, the recent decision to withdraw the Local Plan will, of course, lead to further costs as the plan is reconfigured. It is not possible to incorporate within this budget the potential costs until the reconfiguration exercise is carried out, but I can state that, for the 2022-3 financial year, we will be able to meet any additional costs arising from contingency reserves.

Last night, we also set the Housing Revenue Account budget. The HRA budgets previously submitted to the Housing and the Resources committees presented an annual HRA rent increase using the statutory formula, also used by the last Labour and Independent Administration, of the Consumer Price Index rate as at the end of September, plus 1%, which equated to a 4.1% increase in social rents.

A rent increase is always to be regretted but this year would not have been some gratuitous increase, simply because we were allowed to; our tenants will be seeing a £40m four-year investment programme in their estates, which will also have General Fund contributions where appropriate, to significantly improve the built environment in which they live; allied to improvements to their housing to make them better insulated and energy efficient, bringing household bills down further.

This Administration will also increase the stock of Council homes by 210 over and above the previous build programme.

Although the 4.1% rent increase therefore arose from the sound financial reason of ensuring the HRA thirty-year financial forecast was sustainable, on further consideration, and given the prevailing cost increases, we have decided to reduce the increase in social rents to only CPI, or 3.1%. We believe this still leaves the HRA financially sustainable, while easing the burden on those tenants who pay part or all of their rent themselves. 

A few years ago, the last Administration celebrated the 70th anniversary of Basildon New Town with some events and badges, and went on to create a vision for the future of Basildon and the Borough, comprising high-rise tower blocks, building all over our Green Belt, and white elephant schemes such as the Youth Zone and a stadium in the Town Centre. This Conservative Administration, in the space of eight months and culminating in this second budget, has sought to save the Borough from this nightmare scenario, and give its people a vision of the whole Borough as a better, safer, more attractive and prosperous place to live and work for the next 70 years and beyond.

Full details of the Basildon Council Budget 2022/23 can be read here.