Conservatives in South Gloucestershire have unveiled their proposals for this year’s budget, designed to support communities to “recover and rise” following the Covid-19 outbreak.

Standing on four pillars of focus, the budget plans for the coming year offers a range of measures to tackle problems faced by residents whilst furthering the Administration’s key priorities – Improving school standards and outcomes for young people, improving infrastructure within local communities and underpinning that work by delivering value for money.

Among the proposals unveiled last week, are plans to widen the net of support for residents struggling financially, with a £1million Council Tax support package to assist those who have missed out on previous assistance.

Further provision is also being made to expand welfare debt advice over the coming year, more support for domestic violence victims and a £1.3million pay boost targeted at the lowest paid Council staff.

A 3% Council Tax precept increase is ring-fenced to reinforce Adult Social Care services with a further 1.99% increase going towards protecting wider services for residents.

Improving school standards remains the top priority and provision is being made to further that goal.

Following the successful launch last year of South Gloucestershire’s trailblazing Recovery Curriculum which prepared schools, staff and pupils to return to class to re-engage with learning in the classroom, the budget proposals include a £1.2million investment to launch “Phase Two” of the Recovery Curriculum which will enable schoolchildren to catch up on lost learning whilst also supporting their general wellbeing.

A further £468,000 investment will also be used to create a brand-new Youth Employment Hub to address the increased number of young people not in education or employment.

The Council’s capital investment into schools hits a new record this year with funding being committed to ensure new primary school buildings in Winterbourne, Frenchay and Lyde Green are low carbon, reflecting the Council’s Climate Emergency commitments. This is also reflected in the Council’s ongoing maintenance of existing school facilities with an array of upgrades and improvements planned across the district.

The Council’s ongoing work to level-up the region with brand new infrastructure to meet the needs of our local communities continues with the budget including a range of multimillion pound projects, including the recently announced proposals to purchase the Thornbury Hospital site to progress long-awaited plans for a brand-new healthcare facility for the town, the £25million regeneration plans for Kingswood Town Centre and the completion of the new Yate Park and Ride due later this year.

The Conservative Administration is also set to continue building on its record investment into the local highway network, with millions more set to be invested in resurfacing roads and filling potholes across South Gloucestershire.

Also included within the budget proposals is a £50,000 investment to prepare a programme of activity across South Gloucestershire to mark the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee in 2022.

The full budget proposals are set to be approved by the Cabinet during their meeting on Monday, February 1 ahead of the Council’s budget meeting on Wednesday, February 10.

Announcing the budget, Councillor Toby Savage, Leader of South Gloucestershire Council, said: “This last year has been unprecedented in the way it has changed our day-to-day lives and the way we have seen the Council and our services adapt to meet the needs of residents, businesses and communities as a whole in the wake of Covid-19.

“I am proud that through this budget we are doing even more to help residents and their families recover and to rise above the challenges over the past year, widening the safety net to offer much-needed help to more people than ever before.

“We are also doing everything we can to ensure our children and young people are not left behind, both with the next vital phase of our trailblazing Recovery Curriculum, alongside a new Youth Employment Hub, and through a multimillion-pound increase to our record investments into new and existing school buildings.

“Never before have we had such significant infrastructure which will help drive economic growth and new jobs. This budget triggers another series of fantastic infrastructure projects to further improve local communities across South Gloucestershire.

“Not only have we been able to achieve all of this, but through our prudent financial management, we are continuing to do it while operating under a two-year balanced budget, a luxury that many other local authorities do not share and one that we were not convinced would be possible going into the first lockdown.”