Brighton and Hove City Council has announced that it is able to commit to boosting public services, thanks to achieving a budget underspend.
Despite the ongoing financial challenges that councils around the country face, Brighton and Hove City Council has confirmed that a further £2.3 million will be allocated to important services around the city. This reallocation was approved at last week’s council meeting.
Funding will be put into a number of projects, including:
- Doubling the existing contribution to the Fairness Fund, which supports the most vulnerable residents
- Tackling graffiti around the city
- Planting trees in areas which experience poor air quality
- Additional funding to improve roads and repair potholes
- Investing in priority services
- A series of community engagement events in more deprived areas of the city
An additional £1 million of investment that was also made available through the underspend will also be held back as a contingency to ensure that the financial pressures that the council faces can be addressed. This includes a significant savings requirement that has come from increased inflation, and a heightened demand for services.
The meeting in which the reallocation of funding was approved was the first meeting of the council’s cabinet since it changed from its previous committee system, and other discussions centred around new focuses for the council. These include a strategy for preventing and tackling violence against women and girls, domestic violence and sexual violence, as well as active transport proposals.
As the council moves forward, it has also announced that it intends to take action on a number of key areas relating to governance, one of which sees a focus on improving key financial systems and the development of a more robust and sustainable service and financial plan. This comes within the council’s Annual Governance Statement.
Alison McManamon, Corporate Services Director at Brighton and Hove City Council, said:
“As a responsible organisation we’re always trying to develop and improve. The Annual Governance Statement sets out where we are with our governance, where we want to get to and how we achieve this.”
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