Residents and businesses can now share how they think Essex County Council should prioritise its 2024/25 budget, as part of a new consultation.

The consultation on the county council’s 2024/25 budget is open until Sunday 3 December. It can be completed here: https://consultations.essex.gov.uk/rci/ecc-budget-consultation-2024-25/.

Next year, the council will spend over £2 billion on essential services, as well as investment in the county’s infrastructure and future growth. 

The council has a track record of robust financial management, having saved £235 million over the past five years.

However, the financial outlook for local authorities in general is highly uncertain. This is in large part due to the significant impacts of high inflation, rising interest rates and the continued pressure of the cost-of-living situation.

With this uncertain outlook in mind, the council is asking residents and businesses for their views on:

• the big issues it faces and the challenges that lie ahead for Essex
• the things that concern you and your family
• where we should focus resources as we work to improve lives across our county

The responses received will be used to inform the delivery of Everyone’s Essex in 2024/25 and beyond.

Councillor Chris Whitbread, Chancellor of Essex, said: “We don’t have all the answers when it comes to addressing the challenges we face locally and nationally. Like many households across Essex, we must also make difficult choices about where we spend our budget and where to make savings.  

“We can learn a lot from our communities and it’s important we create opportunities for people and businesses to help inform our priorities for the coming year. A positive way of doing this is by sharing your views during the consultation.”

The consultation on the county council’s 2024/25 budget is open until Sunday 3 December. It can be completed here: https://consultations.essex.gov.uk/rci/ecc-budget-consultation-2024-25/.

Garden Waste suspension

Budget process for 2024-25 begins

Initial budget proposals to deliver a balanced budget for 2024-25 will be discussed by our Cabinet soon, recognising the continued financial pressures and challenges ahead that we face.  

Nationally many councils are facing immediate financial pressures within a challenging and uncertain economic environment, with continuing inflationary pressures combined with an increased demand for council services.

We face a £2.181m budget gap over the next four years.

We plan to use some of our financial reserves to address the short-term budget gap and mitigate areas of potential financial risk to the council, as well as a mix of spending reductions, additional income and continued careful financial management.

But we're also preparing to meet our longer-term challenges and address the budget gap through a comprehensive transformation programme. Work is already underway looking at how the council works and what opportunities exist to deliver services through collaboration and partnerships, as well as closely scrutinising how we use our assets, whilst continuing to deliver and invest in essential services for residents and businesses.  

Sound financial management and the ability to deliver savings and efficiencies and generate more income over many years has left the council in a strong position. But we are not complacent as we continue to face significant challenges ahead and need to address the longer-term budget gap. With less funding available and more people needing our support, we are doing everything we can to provide value for money and making sure our council is fit for the future.  

The budget proposals will be discussed by Cabinet on Monday 27 November and February next year, with the final budget being agreed at Full Council in February 2024.

Read more about our current budget position on our website: https://www.braintree.gov.uk/news/article/603/council-recognises-continued-financial-pressures-and-challenges-as-it-considers-budget which includes a link to the Cabinet report.

Garden Waste collection information

This year’s garden waste collections will start to be withdrawn from Monday 27 November 2023 depending on your recycling collection date.

You can check your final green bin date by using our look up table or by downloading your calendar from our website.

Next year your garden bin will not be collected unless you have signed up for the new subscription service and have applied your permit sticker to the green bin.  Permit stickers will be sent out before the service goes live from 4 March 2024. 

Wednesday 22nd November 2023, 7 - 8pm at Braintree Town Hall