Status: Awaiting Results
The council continues to tackle its funding gap between the money we get in and the services that we offer to Rother. We are consulting you on our draft revenue budget for 2025/26. We would like feedback on any potential impact that the council might not know about. This consultation will run from 8 November to 10 January 2025.
This consultation closed on Friday, 10 January. We received over 1400 responses through the online questionnaire, emails and letters. Thank you to everyone who took the time to give us their views. The budget was considered by Cabinet on 3 February 2025. Agenda for Cabinet on Monday 3rd February 2025, 6.30 pm – Rother District Council.
The council has published its proposals to fill the funding gap for its 2025/26 budget. You can find our report in the Agenda for Overview and Scrutiny Committee on Monday 18th November 2024, 6.30 pm. The councillors debate the draft budget for the first time in that meeting.
We would like to hear from our council tax-payers and any local organisations that might be impacted by changes in the draft budget. Particularly, we draw your attention to the list of proposed cuts and ways to raise income set out in Appendix A.
This is an early opportunity to have your say, while the budget is being written. As the report says, some government decisions that will affect the budget won’t be available until late December.
The services we provide
Rother District Council provides a wide range of services.
- Helping the homeless and those at risk of homelessness,
- Inspecting the quality of rental properties and
- Grants to help people who become disabled to stay in their own homes.
- Council Tax Reduction Scheme and Housing Benefits for residents on very low incomes.
- Leisure facilities and open spaces such as parks, children’s playgrounds and sports pitches and courts. This includes Bexhill Leisure Centre, Bexhill Swimming Pool and Rye Sports Centre through our contractor Freedom Leisure.
- Waste and recycling collection.
- Other cleansing such as street sweeping and litter bins.
- Health and safety in local shops.
- Food safety inspections,
- Pest control,
- Tackling noise, air and other pollution.
- Economic development and regeneration of Rother, including business spaces, supporting local tourism and managing the Levelling Up agenda.
- Supporting the arts, artists and creative industries.
- Planning service for building new homes and infrastructure, writing the Local Plan and
- Related Planning services such as tree preservation orders, conservation, etc.
- Sports development
- Supporting crime prevention and reduction.
- Addressing climate change and a carbon neutral district.
Main changes in the budget
We propose to raise Council Tax by 2.99% based on a band D property. This would raise the Council Tax to £210.65, or an increase of £6.11 for a band D property for the year.
Please note that these figures are not the whole of the Council Tax bill that households receive. Rother District Council collects Council Tax. Roughly 10% of the bill is for the district council. The remainder is raised for the county council, Sussex Police and Crime Commissioner, East Sussex Fire and Rescue as part of their funding. In addition, there is a precept for the town and parish councils.
We propose to raise more income to fill the funding gap. The main method will be adding charges to our car parks were there is not a charge. Details are in Appendix A – items NHS5 to 15. One of the reasons to put on charges is to encourage people to reduce the use of their vehicles, in line with our Climate Change Strategy. You can read about the Car Park Charges from 1st April 2024 – Rother District Council if you would like to compare our new proposals.
To take part
Please email any questions or lengthy responses to consultations@rother.gov.uk
Take part using our online survey – https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/budget2025/
You can write to –
Budget 2025 Consultation
Rother District Council
Town Hall
Bexhill-on-Sea
TN39 3JX
Or hand in your responses to the Town Hall in Bexhill.
Frequently Asked Questions from Those Answering the Consultations
Q: Will other bands pay more council tax? Can the council change the property bands so that people pay more or less?
A:
Council tax is calculated based on band D, as the average property. It is easier for us to refer to band D but all the bands will have an equivalent increase. Band A to band C properties pay a lower proportion of council tax. Properties in band E and above pay proportionately more council tax. How council tax works is set by the national government, including the bands. Councils across the country operate in line with the same legislation. Councils do not put properties into bands and don’t have any control on which band your property is in. You can read more information here Council Tax – Rother District Council
Q: Can’t Rother District Council just keep more of the council tax? Why don’t you keep some of the money you give to the county council?
A:
One council collects the money on behalf of all the organisations that can raise income through the council tax. The benefit to taxpayers is to get one bill and arrange one way of paying instead of a bill and payment for each organisation. Each of those organisations have a right to council tax and are independent from each other. RDC will not ‘keep’ money it is not entitled to keep and it has not collected for itself. This would be illegal.
Q: Why doesn’t the council charge more council tax for second homes and empty homes?
A:
We’ve already made changes. A premium on second homes will apply from 1 April 2025. You can read more here – Council Tax Second Homes – Rother District Council. There is no discount for empty homes and council tax still has to be paid. You can read more here Council Tax Empty Properties – Rother District Council
Q: We want better roads, pavements, potholes filled, etc.
A:
We are consulting on our own council tax that pays for the day-to-day operation of our own services. We are not consulting on services provided by East Sussex County Council. Rother District Council does not supply highways services. All comments and enquiries about roads should be directed to East Sussex County Council’s Highways department – Welcome to East Sussex Highways – live.eastsussexhighways.com.
Q: What about stopping the projects that the council is doing or has planned instead of raising council tax and other proposals? Won’t that save money?
A:
No, the projects are funded separately and through our capital programme. Council tax goes to our revenue budget that supports the day-to-day running of our services. The capital programme is largely funded through grants and reserves (savings). Capital money has a one-off use and generally can’t be used for the revenue budget. Revenue funding pays for services year after year. Using capital money would still results in cuts to the service sooner or later.
Q: Has the council addressed its staffing costs, reduced management, reduced staff, re-organised, increased efficiency, reduced overheads, reduced contracted services, cut or reduced services, devolved services or put them into partnerships, etc.? (Note – this is a combination of several questions.)
A:
Yes. It was in 2008 and 2009 that the government decided to cut funding councils as a contribution to paying back the national debt from the banking crisis and recession. Since 2009 we’ve re-organised several times and we’ve cut both management and staff. We’ve had programmes every year to find ways to reduce costs and raise more income. We are reorganising in 2024 into 2025. The council’s revenue budget for this year was smaller than it was back in 2009, despite inflation.
Q: What if you don’t want to park for four hours?
A:
We used a notional amount and time period in order to calculate potential income. It is based on getting £1.20 if a parking space is occupied for four hours. All our charged car parks offer one hour, two hours and so on. We didn’t mean to imply that there would not be shorter periods on offer. We haven’t finalised the proposals for charges yet and are working on the options.
Q: What about car parks near schools where children are dropped off and picked up?
A:
We haven’t finalised the proposals yet and will take everyone’s responses into account. Several council car parks have special arrangements for children picked up and dropped off for school. For example, Little Common and Battle car parks are near primary schools
Q: How much will it cost the council to get more car parks added to RingGo?
A:
It does not cost the council anything to add car parks to RingGo. There are costs to install ticket machines and operational costs to keep them running, electricity, maintenance and so on. There are costs to put up signs and we have taken that into account in our calculations.
Q: Are you considering a free period for people using the car park to pick up or drop off things with nearby businesses, GP surgeries, pharmacies, post offices, etc?
A:
We are still working on proposals and will consider what people tell us about how they use the car park. Currently, in our charged car parks we allow a short free period. This allows for people who went to find some cash or went to pay by a PayPoint (PayPoint is an alternative to using the RingGo app for people who want to pay by cash or card in car parks where there isn’t a ticket machine).
