Crawley council budget ‘trying to fix roof while sun is shining’

The figures were confirmed at a meeting of the full council along with a budget that leader Peter Lamb said was trying to ‘fix the roof while the sun is shining’.

For years now, councils across the country have seen their government funding cut and cut again, forcing many to axe services or dig into their reserves.

With a surplus of £489,000 for 2020/21, there may appear to be a bit of wiggle room in Crawley’s finances – but that is likely to change rather quickly.

The government is carrying out reviews of council funding and of business rates and, once they are complete, the borough will likely have a lot less money in the pot, with a budget gap of £1.597m predicted by 2022/23.

Mr Lamb said: “We can either look at the years ahead and say we’re going to kick this can down the road and see what happens or – in the full knowledge of what’s coming next – we can try to fix the roof while the sun is shining.

“This is a budget that attempts to fix the roof.

“As a result, council tax will be going up this year, despite the surplus – and I think there will be a lot of people who aren’t very happy with that.”

With less funding coming in from central government, the council has had to look at other ways of bringing in money – Mr Lamb said investing in property had generated a ‘very decent return’ which was pumped back into local services.

All members accepted an amendment from Conservative leader Duncan Crow to allocate £49,000 to take on an income generation officer for one year, whose job would be to find other ways of bringing in money.

With local elections due to take place in May, Mr Crow suggested the budget was ‘a bit of a steady as she goes budget’, comparing Mr Lamb’s council to the Labour government of 2010.

He said: “The budget feels to me like all the difficult decisions will have to be taken next year. I wonder why that is?

“Is the Labour group preparing for opposition so they can blame the new Conservative administration for making the difficult decisions that many of us here feel they are actually putting off?”