Tax rise proposed as county council looks to save £25.5m over next four years

Lincolnshire County Council is set to put up its share of council tax by three per cent while also looking to make nearly £25.5m worth of cuts in the next four years.

The authority says its identified £10m worth of cuts for the 2022/23 financial year and faces financial black holes between £9.3m and £6.4 in each of the next three financial years, documents to its Executive say.

The council tax rise is for the Adult Social Care Budget and was deferred from the previous financial year.

“There are Adult Social Care cost pressures of £13.501m in 2022/23 and the proposed Adult Social Care precept is required to help fund these,” a report to the Executive, which meets on January 5, says.

The report continues that the cuts in the next financial year will come from more home working, reducing admin posts, closing ‘surplus’ buildings. £5.4m is to be saved in the Adult Care and Community Wellbeing sector.

After receiving a £12m cut in central government funding for the roads its responsible for, earlier this month Lincolnshire County Council launched a campaign to try and get that funding back.

Leader Coun Martin Hill, said of that funding: “Although we were able to offset this year’s highways cut by using funds from our own reserves, we won’t be able to allocate that money in the future.

“That’s why it’s essential that government reinstates this £12m – at the very least. This is the amount we need just to keep our roads at the level they are, let alone bring them to where they should be.”

South Holland District Council (which also collects for local drainage boards), parish councils, the Spalding Town Forums and Lincolnshire Police and Crime Commissioner can also request an increase in their share of the council tax you pay.