Stroud News and Journal:

MAJOR multi-million spending proposals and plans for council tax increases are due to be set out by Stroud District Council (SDC) on Thursday.

The Strategy and Resources committee will lay out a raft of measures and debate a blueprint for the next four years of expenditure and investment worth £50million.

Councillors from the ruling co-operative alliance of Labour, Green and Liberal Democrats will also announce plans to increase its council tax precept for the district’s residents by £5 every year for the next four years.

The hugely significant proposals come against a back drop of reduced government funding as the local authority faces “relentless” pressures and massive changes to the landscape of council finance.

Councillor Steve Lydon, Labour leader of SDC, said challenging times lay ahead and that the council faces an expected black hole of £2m in its budget.

“As many people are aware, councils across the country have had to cope with huge government funding cuts with more to come,” he said.

“We are under relentless pressure with the situation worsening over the next four years.

“The government is removing £1.3million from our budgets meaning that in three years’ time we will be in the somewhat unusual position where we actually have to pay half a million pounds back to them, leaving us with a funding gap of nearly £2million.”

The Labour councillor admitted the challenges ahead would be significant and outlined plans for “cuts, efficiencies and savings” – but said SDC would “do its best” to continue providing good council services.

“We have a lot of work to do,” he said, “The rainy day is almost upon us. We don’t want any knee jerk reactions so we’re always looking three or four years ahead.

“It’s a tight budget, but we’re absolutely committed to protecting frontline services. With this in mind we’ve put together a package of measures which will invest in the local economy.

“Some aim to help improve the district and simultaneously build long term income streams for the council to offset the reduction in the money we receive from the government.

“At the same time we’re proposing to increase council tax bills by about 10 pence a week for the average household to cover our regular services.”

This increase would partially offset reduced government funding and mean taxpayer bills are likely rise by 2.62 per cent each year – or by 10.5 per cent by 2020/21.

Stroud News and Journal:

At the top of the council’s proposals for this extra money is a plan to pump £8 million to build new affordable homes for rent.

Under the ethos of “invest to earn”, these rented properties would bring in rental income which the council will then use to fund its day to day services. Over the next year this will see 236 new houses built in the district.

Similarly £8.7 million has been identified to aid economic expansion in the district, the flagship being the long-term redevelopment of Brimscombe Port.

This will see millions used to fund enabling works to “prime the pump” over the next two years, paving the way for construction work to start in 2019.

Money has also been earmarked for the district’s market towns and work to alleviate flooding and free up land for residential and commercial development.

The council hope these investments will yield business rates and rental income which would be rechannelled into providing council services.

However, the investment will also mean SDC will eat into a good amount of its £17 million reserves budgets over the next few years.

The proposals also recommend that the council puts forward £3million as its contribution to continue the regeneration of the Cotswold Canals.

Money for environmental improvements will also see £1.2million spent on introducing a cycling and walking plan for the district, renewable heating measures for Stratford Park lido and more money for the natural flood management project.

Councillor Lydon added: “We’re the only council in Gloucestershire that still owns and manages its council homes so we’ll be continuing our work to build new homes and improve existing ones.

“We intend to spend £32million over the next four years on these areas and this includes over £3million modernising our sheltered housing provision and over £1million on disabled adaptations to our tenants’ homes to allow them to continue to live independently in their homes.

“Aside from benefiting existing and future tenants in over 5,200 homes, this programme will put money into the local economy.”

On top of these investment projects, £60,000 has been earmarked for youth services and £20,000 for the successful Warm and Well initiative to promote energy efficiency and reduce fuel poverty in the year ahead.

A further £30,000 will also be spent on reviewing the council’s Local Plan, which was agreed at the end of 2015.

Another piece of the puzzle in the council’s budgets will see a review of its assets in the district. To save money SDC is looking at transferring ownership of some of the district’s landmarks – such as the Subscription Rooms – to community groups or town councils.

The council is also hoping to work with private companies and the local community to improve the “gateway to Stroud” at Wallbridge for use for the Fringe Festival, raft races and canal use.

The Strategy and Resources committee will meet at 7pm on Thursday 26 January at Ebley Mill to discuss the plans. The meeting can be viewed live, online at www.stroud.gov.uk/webcasts

Stroud District Council is led by Labour, Green and Liberal Democrat parties. The Conservative party is the largest but is locked out of power by this cooperative alliance.