Your guide to Council Tax 2020/21
Shaping our financial future - A message from Cllr Iain Malcolm, Leader of the Council
Your Council delivers hundreds of services every day to improve lives across South Tyneside, ensuring our Borough is a great place in which to live, invest and bring up families.
Every year we respond to over 350,000 customer calls. We manage 1,124km of footpath, 564km of road, 550 hectares of grass and collect 6.5 million bins a year.
We support almost 2,700 children in need as well as providing a mixture of residential and homecare to over 2,500 vulnerable or elderly adults. We handle over 107,000 council tax or benefits enquiries and manage more than 17,000 council homes with our partner South Tyneside Homes. We process over 750 planning applications a year to move forward development and inspect 400 food businesses a year so you can be sure you are safe.
Together, all of these efforts and more are making life better for the people of South Tyneside.
A decade of investment has totally transformed our borough. We are now ten years into our 20 years programme with a bold ambition to transform South Tyneside whilst reconciling financial and demand pressures. We have adapted and innovated in very challenging circumstances.
Your council tax goes towards the day to day running of South Tyneside Council, providing much needed vital services to our residents. But that is only half the story. Elsewhere we work hard to secure external funding from grants, funds and trusts regionally and nationally to help fund our capital programme. These funds are brought in to use for specific projects. Where we may need to borrow, it is done prudently ensuring that it is affordable taking into account additional costs or income that would be generated.
This year your council will continue to invest in projects that will improve our carbon footprint, provide much-needed tailored accommodation for the Borough's vulnerable adults and build on the ambitious regeneration programme of the last 10 years.
We will be putting additional funding into maintaining roads, footpaths and our green spaces, as well continuing to support those who may be facing financial hardship.
Whilst we have undergone a period of unprecedented change in how we deliver some services in the face of significant financial challenges, some things remain the same. Your council still provides added-value services that make a significant contribution to people's lives.
We still provide children's centres to support parents and carers, we still provide milk to school children, we support our elderly residents with subsidised shopper bus services giving them a lifeline to the wider community and we continue to fund local schemes through our Community Area Forums, to name but a few.
We still also face the same demand pressures in children's and adult's social are - spending for which accounts for a significant proportion of our discretionary budget. Whilst we wait for the Government to provide a long-term solution to social care funding, ministers have again suggested a 2% increase in council tax in the form of an adult social care precept. This funding is ringfenced for adult social care only but in no way covers the pressures that we are facing.
As with last year, and like many other Councils across the country, South Tyneside Council is asking residents to pay a little more in their council tax in 20/21 to help protect services.
This year's increase is 3.95% which is made up of a 1.95% council tax increase and the 2% government approved adult social care levy - this equates to around 79p per week for Band A households, into which the majority of households fall.
The bill issued by the Council includes separate amounts levied by other statutory bodies such as police and fire.
Despite ongoing financial and demand pressures we are resolute in our vision to improve the lives of people across South Tyneside. By allocating our resources strategically and working more closely with our partners and local communities we are able to continuously deliver quality services to you.
Cllr Iain Malcolm
Leader of the Council