West Oxfordshire to consider investing more in local services and priorities

The first draft of the Council’s budget shows that thanks to additional income coming in from efficiencies, the Council can invest more resources into providing better leisure and wellbeing options for residents, enforcing planning breaches, managing trees and better managing the councils' estates. 

Councillor Alaric Smith, Executive Member for Finance, said

"We have an ambitious plan to deliver better services, support communities and improve our district but ten years of funding cuts and high inflation have left us with far less money to spend on local services.  

“Whilst recent budgets have increased funding for some areas, West Oxfordshire’s budget remains tight. However, in the last year we have made significant savings by better managing our estates and renegotiating contracts.  

"This has enabled us to not only propose a balanced budget but also consider improving local services. We are confident in our ability to minimise the impact of the financial challenge, maintain service quality, and invest in our community – this budget demonstrates that. 

“The additional investment will build on our delivery over the past year and enable us to do more to build a new approach to leisure and wellbeing services across the district, enforce planning breaches that are often asked for by local communities and better manage trees that can lead to damage if not maintained.” 

Alongside investing in the district, the Council is committed to delivering further efficiencies to help manage the longer-term risk of reduced funding from the Government. Significant efficiencies have been achieved over the past year, such as saving £125,000 in customer services while still being a top-ranked council, and also boosting recycling revenues by £300,000 through renegotiated contracts. 

“Every pound of your council tax counts,” adds Councillor Smith. “We receive about 10% of the total council tax you pay, yet provide more than 50 services, from waste collections to clearing fly tipping to support for people facing homelessness.  

“Our longer-term financial forecast is still strained but we are confident that with continued prudent management of our finances we can continue to invest in improving the district and also delivering high quality services.” 

The Council is still waiting for the final funding agreement from the Government for the next financial year which is due to be published in late December. The draft budget is based on assumptions of what funding will be provided and may change if the Government increase or decrease funding. 

The Council’s Executive will be considering the first draft of its budget for the 2025 – 2026 financial year at its meeting on the 11 December. The final budget will be considered by the Council in February and will include feedback from residents after the budget consultation closes on 15th December.  

Residents can still take part in the budget consultation by visiting www.westoxon.gov.uk/budget