Budget for 2024-25 agreed

At last night's Full Council meeting councillors voted to agree the budget for 2024-25 which includes a council tax rise of 2.99% on the Hastings Borough Council element of council tax.

This rise in the borough council element of council tax is an increase of 17p a week (£8.93 a year) for a band D property. There will also be increases in the East Sussex County Council, East Sussex Fire and Rescue and Sussex Police element of council tax.

The budget shows an improving picture for the council's finances, partly due to the numbers of households needing emergency accommodation starting to stabilise, and also savings that the council agreed to make across other services in December. As the council expands its housing acquisition programme over the coming year there will be further savings from not paying out large amounts of money to private providers.

The budget for 2024/25 also no longer includes costs for building the hotel at Cornwallis Street after Cabinet agreed in principle on Monday 29 January to sell the car park land to Whitbread for them to build the hotel at their expense.

Cllr Paul Barnett, lead councillor for finance, said: "This is a good news budget. The council can look forward to a more stable and secure period as we add to our reserves over the next three years. The numbers of people needing emergency accommodation are starting to stabilise, meaning the costs of providing this is not increasing as quickly as it has been. Work by the housing team to reduce the cost of emergency accommodation is also starting to come to fruition, alongside other savings being made across the council, so things are starting to look more positive for the council's finances.

"This will increase confidence in Hastings and I think the council can now look forward to continuing to attract more investment from both public and private sources to enable us to tackle regeneration and deprivation

"However, the Government settlement is, yet again, a real terms cut for Hastings after allowing for inflation, and they also expect us to increase council tax by the maximum allowed of 2.99%. We know that an increase in council tax is not something that people want to hear, but this increase is less than inflation has been in the last year, and we are continuing to offer council tax reduction to those who are unable to afford to pay."

Council tax bills will be sent to residents in mid-March, if you have signed up for online billing you will be able to view your bill through My Hastings when it is available.

You can read the full details in the agenda for the meeting and watch the meeting back.