Sussex council balances budget via reserves after hiking fees

Mid Sussex District Council has used £343,000 in reserves to balance its budget, despite hiking taxes and fees.

Its 2024-25 budget was approved at a meeting on Wednesday and included a 2.95% rise in council tax.

But its deficit looks set to grow over the next few financial years.

Council leader Robert Eggleston said balancing the books this year would not solve the problem, but only buy the council time.

"Our budget will only balance this year because we're drawing on unrestricted reserves and benefiting from exceptionally high levels of treasury management income," Mr Eggleston told the meeting.

"But it's not possible to do that indefinitely."

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, the council's deficit is set to grow over the coming years.

A shortfall of £1.5m is forecast for 2025-26, growing to £5.4m by the following financial year.

Mr Eggleston told the meeting the council tax increase "doesn't remotely cover inflation and new service obligations".

He added that raising other fees - such as parking charges -  was "the only other mechanism" the council had to plug its funding gap after deciding not to cut any services or staffing levels.

The budget included the introduction of evening and weekend parking fees, as well as different fees for different towns.

The use of reserves was lower than earlier forecast thanks to an extra £196,000 from the government as part of the Local Government Settlement.

But Mr Eggleston said the council had had to find £1.7m in extra inflationary costs alone.

Follow BBC South East on Facebook, on X, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected] or WhatsApp us on 08081 002250.