Most taxpayers in Derbyshire will owe more than £40 extra to the county council due to ballooning inflation and the rising costs of caring for an increasing number of vulnerable adults and children.

Derbyshire County Council is set to increase its share of your overall council tax bill by 3.75 per cent, which for Band B taxpayers is £41.55 more and £53.42 for Band D taxpayers, with further payments owed for your local council(s) and the police and fire services.

Budget papers published by the county council stress that the financial burden on households did form part of the decision making process but that the security of the authority, and the services it provides to thousands of people, also need to be safeguarded.

These papers also detail at length that the authority needs to see central Government step up its funding for councils, which have limited ways in which to raise cash and rising costs for services to battle.

Paul Stone, the council’s interim director of finance, concludes a stark assessment by hinting that there could be an “increased risk” of the authority having its finances frozen and only allowed to spend on the bare essentials, such as staff pay and critical services.

This would be if current financial pressures continue, without the additional funding required, and if “sufficient and timely” budget cuts are not made.

Over the next year alone, the council must make £16.2 million in budget cuts, and a total of £46.7 million over the next five years – having already cut more than £300 million since 2010, amounting to nearly half of its entire annual budget.

The figure for the number of staff redundancies that could be made through these cutbacks has not yet been disclosed but has been referred to as “significant”.

This year the overall budget will be £675 million, with most going towards social care for children and adults.

It is costs to protect the county’s most vulnerable which are the source of the greatest pressure for the council, reports make clear.

The cost of support, including staff, facilities and transportation, is increasing, but so is the number of people in need of support and the level of complexity of care they require.

As of the latest figures, there are 1,004 children in the council’s care, up from below 800 in 2018, with costs surging by 40 per cent too.

The council now spends around £18 million per year on school transport, including for children with special educational needs and disabilities, up from around £13 million five years ago.

Budget papers detail: “The council, along with many other local authorities in the country, continue to express concern regarding substantial increases in the cost of children’s social care, urging Government to provide additional funding for the service.”

For adult social care, which includes care homes, support provided to people in their homes and discharge from hospital, costs are increasing by an estimated £5-6 million a year, which is expected to continue for “at least the next five years”.

Budget papers detail: “There are growing pressures around hospital discharge from the NHS, with an increase in demand, and because there is an insufficient supply of home care and reablement services, this has driven increased placements into residential homes rather than into care at home.

“The Council’s preference is for Government to recognise costs associated with social care through the redistribution of national taxation.

“However, the clear expectation from Government is that local taxation is also part of the solution.

“The council is facing significant financial pressures, including pay and price increase. There are also substantial demands on the council’s services, in particular, social care.

“Additional funding from Government has been provided to support risings costs, however, it is not sufficient to meet the full cost of the service pressures identified.

“If current trends continue and the Government fails to provide adequate further funding to support these services, there will be further pressure on budgets in 2024-25 and in later years.”

The council’s interim finance chief also details that the authority’s rainy day fund, the general reserve currently sits at £31 million but it is having to use nearly £18 million in reserves and other fund to quash an colossal overspend, the council is due to start the next financial year with £19.7 million.

This in turn is currently projected to fall below £13 million by the 2027 to 2028 financial year.

The council’s finance chief details that while the authority “will always attempt to keep council tax rises as low as possible”, it is facing an increasingly difficult situation.

Mr Stone writes that future forecast years of council tax increases “may need to be revised upwards”.

She wrote: “Council tax rises on households, many of which will be struggling as they cope with unemployment and an uncertain future, is a difficult decision. However, it is the single most effective way of providing base budget to support the delivery of services and maintain financial sustainability over the longer term.”

Cllr Barry Lewis, leader of the Conservative-run authority, said: “Setting the council tax is never easy, and we fully acknowledge that any rise in household bills will not be welcomed during these challenging times, but we must raise funds to meet the costs of providing vital services that people rely on, so we must strike a balance.

“The proposed 3.75 per cent rise is expected to be the lowest in the East Midlands and among the lowest in the country, and we have worked hard to keep it as low as possible and not pass the rising costs in their entirety on to our residents.”

Cllr Simon Spencer, deputy leader, wrote: “Unfortunately, the money we will receive will not meet our full requirements and there may be difficult decisions that need to be taken in the future, but as an enterprising council we continue to work hard to ensure essential services continue and look to find new ways of working that will make us as efficient as we can be while providing the best value for money.”

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