Consultation - Winchester City Council Budget/Medium Term Financial Strategy

Overview

Winchester City Council is facing an increasing budget shortfall due to reductions in central government funding affecting all local authorities and by 2023 will need to find over £6m per year of annual savings. This represents 30% of the net annual budget.

We want your views on the choices we have to make.

We have to set our budget and agree the Medium Term Financial Strategy in February 2020, and we invite you to have your say now. This consultation is open between Wednesday 18 December and Monday 13 January 2020.  Please share it with friends, family and colleagues who live and work in the Winchester district.

Not all of the proposals included in this consultation will be included in the Budget Report in February 2020 - the purpose of this process is to help choose between them.

Where have these proposals come from?

In September we ran a budget simulator to enable local people to try to balance our budget. Over 90% of the 123 respondents showed a general preference for increasing income through Council Tax and fees and charges rather than reducing services. You can see the more detailed results here.

We have already made savings of £1.6m from running council services more efficiently, but this alone will not meet the budget gap.

The proposals being considered for the Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) focus on generating the income that is essential to balance the budget but a small number of potential areas for cost saving are also included. There are also specific questions regarding proposed changes to parking arrangements. If you would like more background information about how we reached this set of proposals you can read the report that considered by the council at the Cabinet Meeting in October here: CAB3178 - Outcome Based Budget Challenge Report

All responses we receive will be collated and the findings reviewed at the city council’s Cabinet Meeting on January 22 and then the budget will be considered at the Full Council Meeting on 26 February 2020. These are public meetings and all are welcome to attend – if you can’t make it to the Guildhall in central Winchester, the meetings are also now audio live streamed and relayed on the www.winchester.gov.uk website