Budget agreed for 2022-23

Hastings Borough Council has agreed the budget for 2022-23 following a meeting of Full Council on Wednesday 16 February.
The budget includes a commitment to continue focussing on the council's six priority areas as set out in the Corporate Plan. These are: tackling poverty, homelessness and ensuring quality housing; keeping Hastings clean and safe; making best use of our buildings, land, and public realm assets; minimising environment and climate harm in all that we do; delivery of our major regeneration schemes; and ensuring the council can survive and thrive into the future.
The Hastings Borough Council element of council tax will be increased by 1.99%. For a Band D property this will be an increase of £5.50 a year to £281.67 per year.
Cllr Peter Chowney, lead councillor for finance, said: "Over the last 12 years, cuts in government grants have seen Hastings Borough Council lose around £70m cumulatively, with these year-on-year austerity cuts still continuing. On top of that, the costs of providing temporary accommodation to homeless people have increased from £450,000 a year to £5,000,000 a year since 2010. Along with other challenges such as inflation, wage increases and unexpected one-off costs, these accumulating pressures have made it incredibly difficult to put together a balanced budget, and we've had to use reserves to achieve that.
"We know that times are tight for many of our residents, but we've had to increase council tax by the maximum allowed without a referendum and have kept increases in our fees and charges below inflation. However, Hastings Borough Council gets less than one-eighth of the council tax collected. Around three quarters goes to East Sussex County Council, who are allowed a significantly larger increase in their share, so council tax bills will go up by around £84 a year for a band D property.
"Nevertheless, we are still pursuing some exciting capital-funded projects in the near future, including the Town Deal investment, mostly financed by external grants and income raised by the projects themselves, which we believe will bring increased investment into the town."
Council tax bills are currently being finalised and will be delivered to homes in mid-March, unless you have signed up to receive your bill by email.