Column by the leader of South Gloucestershire Council, Toby Savage.

The council's budget plans for 2022/23 is set to have something for everyone in South Gloucestershire. At the same time, I’m pleased to say we have been careful to balance the books and that we will continue to deliver value for money for residents.

The Full Council meeting next week will discuss the new £259.5million budget, which will ensure that your council continues to protect vital frontline services. It will also consider the Capital Budget for 2022/23, which will see £140.448m invested in the coming year.

At a time of rising living costs, we are committed to supporting residents by tackling inequality of opportunity and giving children the best start in life. We will also invest in improving our communities even further. Thanks to a lot of work by officers behind the scenes, we are able to do this through a balanced budget for the next four years and with lower council tax rise for the coming year - 2.99 per cent – which is lower than inflation and well below Council’s historic increases.

One of our top priorities is to give children and young people the best start in life. Our budget plans include continuing record investment in new schools and school maintenance; increasing funding for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities by £5m; and continuing £15.3m investment in children’s services to protect the most vulnerable. We will also extend support for a further three years for the Holiday Activity and Food Fund that provides free activities and meals for children during Christmas, Easter and summer holidays, which we know is a lifeline for many families. We will also issue library cards to all reception and Year Six children to help boost literacy.

Other important plans include spending more than £12m on maintenance and improvements to roads, including funding to tackle potholes which will benefit drivers and cyclists alike. Our streets will also see some more sprucing too as we commit to investing an additional £639,000 in the street cleaning teams.

We will continue to support those who still feel the financial impact of the Covid-19 pandemic by extending our Community Resilience Fund. We also plan to help people to live healthier lives through our new £1m Prevention Fund.

Our budget will also ensure we continue leading on the local response to the climate emergency and become carbon neutral by 2030. To do this, we plan to increase the number of staff directly focussing on delivering initiatives such as delivering low carbon schools; continuing to convert our fleet to electric powered vehicles and installing new electric vehicle charging points across the district; and to ensure we incorporate our response to the climate and nature emergencies into every element of what the council does.

I believe that the new budget demonstrates our commitment to delivering value for money as well as excellent services to our residents.