(Photo courtesy of MEN) Although finance may not be everyone’s cup of tea, Stockport Council need to set a balanced budget for the year and this happened on Thurs last week.  And it’s hard.   All councils are struggling to make ends meet with the reduction in support from central government, due to end completely […]

source: OBR As you may well have seen, the new post-referendum Conservative government, after years of hardship to some caused by “austerity”, have decided to borrow £112 billion to finance the next 4.5 years of government. Of this the OBR (The Office for Budget Responsibility), an independent and normally a careful organisation, has said that […]

Council Budget and a response to Tory reserve claims I am grateful that the Conservative group did put forward an alternative budget for once, so we can see the difference in emphasis. They planned to put up council tax by 2%, plugging the gap with the £900K transitional funding (that saw Surrey get an extra £24m) […]

Most councils to implement new council tax powers  Nine in 10 English councils are set to use special new powers to impose council tax hikes of up to 4% this year, raising funds to alleviate a growing crisis in care services for the elderly and disabled. The LGA said that 143 of the 152 local […]

£21 million is being taken out of the money government gives to Stockport Council. Coupled with the autumn statement that forces councils to raise more money locally, Stockport has been forced to propose increasing Council Tax by 3.75%.  9 out of 10 councils in England and Wales  are doing something similar, and Stockport has avoided the […]

 Transport budget briefing Transport for Greater Manchester Committee are holding their budget briefing on Tuesday 23rd February. The event is an opportunity for residents and stakeholders to be briefed on the transport budget for Greater Manchester for the period 2016 –17. There will also be a question and answer session after the budget presentation. The […]

George Osborne, copyright H M Treasury  The chancellor in his autumn statement announced that, due to the shortfall in the funding of social services, he would allow an extra 2% to be levied by local authorities to plug the gap.   Bravo Mr Osborne!   Unfortunately this Osborne Tax comes from Stockport residents in the form […]

Councils have a legal duty to have a balanced budget and to spend only what they can afford.  As the Council Tax has not increased for many years, and the money we receive from central government continues to drop, the 2016-2017 budget will see the annual biggest drop in spending yet: a whopping £21 million. […]