Council budget 2024/25

Careful financial management and long-term planning has put Bromley in an advantageous position to manage an unprecedented era of financial challenge across local government nationally. However, as we plan for the future, there are likely to be stark and unpalatable decisions to be made due to increased demand for services and increased costs.

Over £130m has already been taken out of the council’s budget since 2011/12 to meet persistent gaps in funding. Now savings must be found to meet the current projected budget gap of around £16.6m in 2025/26 increasing to £38.7m per annum in 2027/28.

In addition to funding challenges, the impact of inflation, legacy from COVID-19 and demographic changes add further challenges to budget projections.

There was a projected budget gap of £10.1m per annum by 2025/26, when the 2023/24 council tax was agreed last year in February 2023. Inflation and, in particular, the rising cost of adult and children’s social care as well as housing services, has increased the budget gap, after allowing for new savings in 2024/25, to £16.6m in 2025/26 rising to £38.7m per annum from 2027/28.

The council continues to focus on producing a balanced budget year on year by not spending more than is received and by maximising every sensible opportunity to develop sustainable income streams. However, the decisions that are required to achieve this are becoming increasingly difficult.

Many new and innovative approaches to service delivery have been explored in recent years to help achieve best value while keeping council tax as low as possible. While further innovation will of course be sought, the possible further savings from this are narrowing, meaning difficult choices are increasingly needed around service delivery.

Engagement with residents continues to be important, with many residents being active in various ways to help make the borough a place to be proud of and one where it’s a pleasure to live, work, do business and spend leisure time.

As a low grant, low spending borough, Bromley has consistently put its case for a fairer distribution of funds from central government. This has continued to this year, with a renewed call for additional Government funding for Local Government being unanimously approved by Full Council in October. Unfortunately, the latest government settlement was disappointing as it did not provide sufficient additional funding for key (including statutory) local government services.

Residents are asked for their views on what is important for council services over the next few years within this challenging context. It may be helpful to consider recent activities below that provides a snapshot of what has been achieved by the council.

Key council achievements

• Achieved Outstanding across the board in Children’s Services in an Ofsted inspection conducted at the end of 2023, being one of only a handful of boroughs achieve this.
• Came first place across all London Boroughs for household recycling, with no waste sent to landfill and the majority of Bromley’s non-recyclable refuse continuing to be used to generate green energy.
• continued the £1m Platinum Jubilee Park Fund, with 33 projects given the green light so far to improve green spaces across the borough.
• Planted over 3000 trees as part of the Treemendous programme which will see 5000 trees planted in total over 4 years.
• Continuing work to improve park infrastructure including £159k safety features in St Paul’s Cray, and early plans to replace the footbridge in Kelsey Park
• Supported 9 of the borough’s green spaces to achieve Green Flag status in 2023. 
• Moving towards establishing new woodlands on three council owned sites, with the aim of delivering long-term carbon offset benefits. 
• Completed repair and conservation work to the remains of the medieval moated manor house at Scadbury Park. 
• Progressed works on the £220k restoration of the Croydon Road Recreation Ground bandstand, made famous by David Bowie.
• Saving £1m per year by converting Bromley’s streetlamps to LED.
• First London borough to conduct trial of new Gul-e on-street electric car charging.
• Five Park Mark Awards were renewed in car parks across the borough, with Bromley retaining this standard across all its car parks.
• Living in Care Council and Care Leaver Forum (Change for Care Leavers) won Coram British Association for Adoption and Fostering’s ‘Young Persons Voice’ First Prize as organised by the National Children in Care Council.
• Early Help Service came ‘Runners Up’ for Early Help Services in the Children and Young People Awards 2023.
• Held the first Bromley Adult Care Awards ceremony with five Bromley Adult Care Award winners received acclaim in the London Great British Care Awards 2023.
• Developed a successful Transformation programme with the Social Care Institute for Excellence which has gained ongoing interest from the Department of Health and Social Care at a national level
• Further work to refresh the Local Offer for children with special educational needs and disabilities and to better signpost advice, guidance and services.
• The majority of Bromley’s secondary school children received offers from their preferred schools.
• Continued to deliver the Tackling Loneliness Strategy, with the council’s ‘Loneliness Workshop’ winning the ‘Princess Royal Training Awards’ and the Tackling Loneliness poster chosen for exhibition at The Campaign to End Loneliness International Conference, with Bromley being the only local authority recognised in this way. 
• Delivered a redesigned and upgraded website with enriched features, enhanced search functionality and significantly improved the customer accessibility rating.
• Simply Connect ongoing – a free, easy-to- search, online directory of voluntary organisations poised to help and support residents
• Signed the Armed Forces Covenant to renewed Bromley’s commitment to the armed forces community, with new ways of providing support to veterans in Bromley being explored.
• Modernised sexual health services and increased accessibility to digital services, which has helped ensure clinicians see the right people at the right time.   
• Supported health colleagues with vaccination programmes including COVID, and Flu.  
• Won an Excellence in Asset Management Award at the Public Finance Awards in acknowledgement of robust treasury management
• Received the Gold Award in the ‘Efficiency and Effectiveness’ category in the national iESA Transformation Awards. 
• Fraud Team won ‘Excellence’ in the Institute of Revenues Ratings and Valuation category ‘Protecting the Public Purse’
• Continued Bromley Homes for Bromley People initiative to build affordable housing in the borough, with 75 new homes coming forward near Bromley North and works continuing on 26 new homes next to West Wickham Library.
• The completed housing development on Burnt Ash Lane delivered by partner contractors ZED Pods received an ‘Energy Efficiency Award’ in the summer.
• Continued to secure properties through working with housing associations as part of a commitment to deliver urgently needed affordable housing.
• Won the prestigious national Affordable Housing Award for Homeless Project of the Year 2023. This award recognises projects that deliver exceptional work with homeless clients, and the remarkable individuals who lead by example.
• Provided essential support to Bromley’s most vulnerable residents through the Household Support Fund.
• Supported 840 Ukrainian guests in Bromley in the Homes for Ukraine project, with a weekly Ukraine Support Hub being run to provide information and advice about a variety of subjects including health care, employment, education, learning English and everyday issues. 
• Local Land Charges were ‘Runners Up’ for ‘Team of the Year’ in the Land Data Local Land Charges Awards.
• The borough’s libraries were recognised for issuing over one million books last year, more than any other London Borough.
• Tens of thousands attended special events on Bromley High Street as part of the BR1 Lates programme following Bromley’s selection as one of London’s Night Time Enterprise Zones, as well as events from the High Streets for All programme.
• The restoration of the Grade II* Listed Crystal Palace Subway is nearing completion as the park’s wider £52m Regeneration Plan progresses, with the restoration of the dinosaurs also receiving National Lottery Heritage funding.
• Residents came together across the borough, including in Queen’s Gardens to watch the Coronation, with over 170 street parties taking place in Bromley.
• Bromley’s Principle Social Worker was awarded First Prize in the ‘National Leader Award’ by Front Line.

These achievements and results were achieved thanks to the diligent work of Bromley’s committed staff, a large section of whom live in the borough.

How much is the council's net budget?

The council has projected a net budget of £267 million for 2024/25

Our spending includes

• £94 million on adult social care providing services from care assessment to home care, from support for those with physical disabilities, to support for those with learning disabilities and those with mental health issues
• £69 million is for children and young people and includes safeguarding and social care, special educational needs services, behavioural support, early years, education and schools.
• £13 million on providing housing services
• £44 million is spent on the environment such as waste services, street cleaning, traffic, public protection, road safety and maintaining Bromley’s parks and green spaces
• £10 million for renewal and recreation covering services like our libraries, regenerating and managing our town centres, and our planning services
• £10 million is spent on concessionary fares (Freedom Passes)

A large part of the council's services are funded by specific government grants which includes, for example, funding for schools and housing benefits. The council has very limited influence on how this money is spent.

The council has a statutory duty to have a balanced budget and action will be required to eliminate the budget gap which involves difficult choices.

The 2024/25 local government settlement is the sixth one-year settlement in a row and this continues to hamper strategic financial planning, making it especially challenging to set a medium-term financial strategy. Further uncertainty remains as the fair funding review has been delayed until at least 2026/27.

How does the way the council is funded affect its budget?

• Bromley has the second lowest level of settlement funding per head of population in London giving us £118 per head of population in 2023/4 compared to the average in London of £314 - the highest is £533.
• The council has expressed and continues to express serious concerns with the current and previous governments about the fairness of the funding system and to lobby for a fairer deal for our residents.
• If the council received the average level of grant funding for London, income would increase by £50.6 million.
• Bromley has the third lowest council tax in outer London.
• Bromley has had to face significant reductions in government funding since 2010 to 11 and there remains significant uncertainty about future funding.