WNC 2024/25 Draft Budget Consultation
West Northamptonshire Council’s annual budget is now out for public consultation, ending on 23 January (link below). It won't be the most fun you'll ever have in your life, but if you can find the time to respond please do. There's a transcript of CA-WN's response at the bottom which you are welcome to borrow from.
Overall the message, similar to last year, is one of cost pressure and increasing demand for services. The council, like others all over the country, has a difficult and unenviable task in trying to balance its books.
As CA-WN is a climate action group, we have predictably focused on what the budget tells us about how West Northamptonshire, as a council and an area, is going to meet its Net Zero targets (2030 as a council, 2045 as an area). These are the key points of interest in this respect:
· The brief Climate Impact section in the main Draft Budget document acknowledges that some proposals create unavoidable increases in emissions. These are to be “monitored and managed as part of the Council’s ongoing carbon reduction work”. It would be good to be told if there are proposals which result in lower emissions too.
· There was only one capital project we could see that ought to result in emissions cuts: investment in heat decarbonisation projects across 3 sites (Danes Camp Leisure Centre, Abington Park Museum and Everdon Field Centre). This is being funded by the council and the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme.
· Northamptonshire Partnership Homes (NPH) and WNC will be working on estimating how much needs to be invested to get the housing owned by WNC and managed by NPH to zero carbon. We very much hope this information will be made public. NPH manage around 12,000 homes, of which several hundred have been part of a whole house retrofit project under the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund. There’s a way to go for NPH to get to net zero, although it is minor compared with the scale of the issue across the whole of West Northamptonshire, which contains around 175,000 homes. There is very little publicly available information about the current condition of these homes and none at all about what it might cost to bring them up to an acceptable level of energy efficiency.
· The Environmental Implications section of the Draft Housing Budget document gives a good insight into the efforts being made by NPH to cut emissions, both in its existing housing stock and when constructing new builds. This section is reproduced below because we liked it so much. It would be great to see private developers applying the same new build standards, wouldn’t it?
Finally, a word about the consultation process. The Draft Budget Report tells us:
… at all key stages of the process, the draft budget and consultation arrangements will be extensively promoted across a broad range of communications channels to ensure public awareness and encourage participation in the process across West Northants. This will range from news outlets, websites and social media to local community engagement channels, with specific targeting of audiences including hard-to-reach groups.
Good marks for public engagement? Well, maybe, although actually participating in the consultation is harder than the above paragraph might suggest. We are asked to “read the related documents for a better understanding of the budget proposals before you comment on them.” There are 13 related documents in total, one or two of which are very short, but most of which require a fair amount of time and concentration. The subject matter is inevitably complex and detailed, but there must be a better way of helping the public to understand it in order to make an informed comment.
Transcript (edited for brevity) of CA-WN Response to West Northamptonshire Council Draft Budget 2024/25 Consultation
Please tell us the name of your organisation, and your role:
Organisation: Climate Action - West Northamptonshire
Job title/role: Chair
PROPOSED INCREASE TO COUNCIL TAX
To what extent do you agree or disagree that we should increase Council Tax by 2.99 per cent to address the additional cost of our service provision?
Strongly agree
Why did you answer the previous question in the way that you did?
This is effectively the maximum amount the council can legally increase council tax by - given cost pressures it would be irresponsible to go for a lower increase.
To what extent do you agree or disagree that we should increase Council Tax by a further 2 per cent to fund the increase in costs of providing Adult Social Care?
Strongly agree
Why did you answer the previous question in the way that you did?
This is effectively the maximum allowed increase - given cost and demand pressures it would be irresponsible to go for a lower increase.
FEES AND CHARGES
To what extent do you agree or disagree that the council should put up some fees and charges in line with inflation, in order to help fund services?
Strongly agree
If you have any comments to make about fees and charges, please give us your views below:
Not Answered
DRAFT GENERAL FUND CAPITAL PROGRAMME 2024-2028
If you have any comments to make on these proposals, please give us your views below:
As an organisation interested in how the council and wider area is going to achieve Net Zero targets, we would like to see more capital spending targeted at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. It may be that very few such projects are planned for the coming year - worrying as the timeframes for achieving Net Zero are very short. If this is the case it would be helpful to see somewhere (and perhaps this budget is not the place) a forecast for when and how capital projects will be implemented to meet Net Zero.
DRAFT HOUSING REVENUE ACCOUNT (HRA) BUDGET 2024/25
To what extent do you agree or disagree with the proposal to increase rent by 7.7 per cent (an average increase of £8.00 per week) across the Council’s housing stock managed by Northampton Partnership Homes (NPH) in line with national government policy?
Tend to agree
To what extent do you agree or disagree with the proposal to increase garage rents (by £0.84p per week) by 7.7 per cent?
Tend to agree
To what extent do you agree or disagree with the proposal to increase general service charges by 7.7 per cent in line with current inflation?
Not Answered
Within the HRA there are plans to invest £54m in social housing during the next financial year, as part of a total five year capital programme amounting to £279m. To what extent do you agree or disagree with the planned investment of £54m for social housing during 2024/25?
Strongly agree
Tell us why you have answered the above question in the way that you did:
Lack of good quality social housing is a chronic problem contributing to homelessness and public health issues, so investment in social housing is welcomed.
If you have any comments regarding the HRA Capital programme and indicative budgets as summarised in the Draft HRA Revenue Budget 2024-25 and Medium Term Financial Plan report, and Appendices, then please tell us here:
It is good to read in the Environmental Implications section the positive steps being taken by NPH to decarbonise their estate. The council should require the same new build standards from private developers.
End of submission. CA-WN had no further comments.