A leading councillor warned of gloomy times ahead as he proposed a rise in bills for the county’s taxpayers.
Lincolnshire County Council has launched a consultation on its 2025/26 budget, which includes a proposed 2.99% council tax increase.
The rise is expected to generate an additional £11.7 million, based on the current council tax base, increasing Band D bills from £1,578.69 to £1,625.85 annually.
The Conservative-led council’s executive approved the draft budget during a meeting on Tuesday (7 January), formally starting the consultation process. Feedback will contribute to an updated proposal, set to return to the executive on Tuesday, 4 February.
At that meeting, the executive will determine the final proposal to be presented to the full council during its budget-setting session on Friday, 21 February 2025.
Leader Martin Hill has warned of a “difficult year” ahead following the announcement of the central government’s provisional local government finance settlement in December.
“We know these are very difficult times,” he said, claiming that Lincolnshire County Council is “one of the worst-funded councils in the whole of the country.”
He explained: “Two things were very disappointing in the budget we received from government. First of all, they removed something called the rural services delivery grant, which for us was worth £9.4 million. They replaced it with something called the recovery grant, of which we got nothing. But we find that councils like Birmingham suddenly get an extra £40m.
“The second issue is the impact of national insurance contributions. There will be a direct cost to the county council for those people we employ, which we estimate to be around £5m. We only got just under £4m for that, so we are out of pocket there.
“The bigger sum is the issue of contractors we employ for all sorts of things. They, of course, will also have to pay the extra employer contributions, and the government has given no extra money for that. That could be an extra £10-£13m cost coming to the county council.”
“There are two big hits there. We have got some extra money for highways and social care, but overall it’s very disappointing.”
The Conservative leader also highlighted that the “bigger worry” is if future settlements take a similar approach.
“If this is the direction of travel, where money is basically being taken away from rural areas like Lincolnshire and given to cities like Birmingham, that is going to make life very difficult.”
Coun Hill said some may argue that a 5% rise in council tax – the maximum allowed before a referendum – would be necessary, but he says the authority recognises that households and businesses are under a lot of pressure, so he is looking to protect council taxpayers.
“Some households are finding it very tough at the moment, so what we’ve decided to do is to just go for a 3% increase, subject to the consultation, which is around the level of inflation.
“With that 3%, we can deliver a balanced budget without any cuts to frontline services.”
He described it as “a challenging time” and “a frustrating time,” but assured that “as always, we will deliver a balanced budget all while trying to protect our council taxpayers.”
Coun Colin Davie, portfolio holder for economic development, environment, and planning, shared Coun Hill’s sentiments regarding the direction of central government, arguing it painted a “bleak picture going forward.”
“This is a government that does not like rural England,” he said.