STROUD District Council has overwhelmingly agreed a draft budget for the year ahead, amidst growing uncertainty over its financial future.

Councillors approved a four year budget plan at a meeting last Thursday night, agreeing a council tax increase of 1.99 per cent for next year, voting 36 in favour to five against, with seven abstentions.

Council leader Geoff Wheeler painted a positive picture of the council’s ‘healthy and resilient budget’ for the short term, but cast concerns of its uncertainty during the rest of the decade.

While he said there was ‘some good news’, he also spoke of a widening budget gap opening up in 2017/18 which would put significant pressure on the council’s resources.

By 2020 the council will see a reduction in the government’s revenue support grant of 152 per cent – the largest loss in Gloucestershire.

This means that as well as having its funding reduced to zero, it will have pay the government an estimated tariff of just over half a million pounds by 2019.

In the future Stroud District Council (SDC) will be allowed to keep 100 per cent of the money it raises from business rates, but this will come with qualifications.

But councillors raised concerns about the ‘uncertain’ details of the policy, which will come into effect by 2019/20.

In addition to this the council will be awarded £900,000 from the government’s new homes bonus scheme.

Despite these new income-raising powers, SDC will be facing a £3 million shortfall over next four years.

This funding gap raised serious concerns among councillors about SDC’s ability to keep key services afloat.

“The future of funding for councils does indeed look unsettling and uncertain,” said Cllr Wheeler.

“Recent announcements by the government show clearly that we will be hit by a 152 per cent reduction in funding which means that we will not only lose all of our government grant, but we will also need to pay more money back to it.

“Whilst business rates will be retained by councils to offset this drop, this will come with added responsibilities, so we don’t yet know how this will impact on the services we already provide.

“Additionally, councils have become more and more dependent on the New Homes Bonus to provide funding for services, but with a strong indication that the goalposts on that system are about to be moved too, councils across the country are likely to be hit hard over the next few years.”

Speaking at the meeting, Green councillor Martin Whiteside criticised the government’s cuts, saying the council was being ‘penalised’ for its good housekeeping.

“We’ve come to this crisis in a very strong financial position,” he said.

“It’s extraordinary that a well-run council like this is being penalised and is actually having to pay money and bail out other less well-run councils.

“This is not a reasonable way to run local government and its left us stuck between a rock and a hard place.”

The councillor for Thrupp also said further government changes would ‘undermine the excellent progress’ SDC had made on affordable homes provision.

Cllr Steve Lydon (Labour) added that the fresh cuts posed a serious questions about the role and function of local councils in the UK.

Green councillor Simon Pickering said despite SDC being the leading local authority in Gloucestershire, it would soon be facing pressure like never before.

Cllr Nigel Studdert-Kennedy (Conservative) agreed, saying the council’s finance department had a difficult task on their hands over the next few years.

“They will need a thundering good crystal ball to find out what’s coming next,” he said.

“While I appreciate we have to have efficiency savings where we can get them, once you start cutting the skeleton the whole lot collapses.”

But Tory councillor Nigel Cooper (Painswick) said the severity of the government’s funding reductions were down to the previous Labour administration.

He said: “The reductions in government funding have been clearly signposted ever since the coalition government took over. They were left in a disastrous position.”

Cllr Cooper argued the government were not cutting the grant to be ‘vindictive’, but out of necessity.

The budget put an end to five years of frozen council tax in Stroud. The average Band D bill will now rise from £186.93 to £190.67 - an increase of 7p per week.

In the budget year 2018/19 Stroud District Council will have to send £77,000 back to the central government. This will increase to an estimated £549,000 by the following year.