Sheffield City Council's public consultation on budget closing soon

The Covid-19 pandemic has placed a lot of our public services under severe strain whilst trying to provide and accommodate for the people of Sheffield during unprecedented levels of demand and uncertainty. Like most local authorities, Sheffield City Council has experienced high levels of demand in the majority of the areas they’re responsible for, including unprecedented demands on health and social care services.

The Council has already declared £35.7 million in savings made but this still leaves a budget gap of £62.3 million. Areas of additional savings were announced last month in the form of voluntary redundancies and early retirement in order to make up more of the Council’s budget deficit.

As there will be no extra funding allocated from central government for local authorities when it comes to tackling the impacts of Covid-19, savings will have to be made elsewhere to mitigate this in the budget.

The Council are asking the people of Sheffield to contribute to their public consultation on their budget proposals, how money is spent and collected by them, and what the Council’s priorities should be.

The consultation asks people to consider:

• Revenue - the day-to-day operating costs of services, such as education, social care services, and leisure.
• Capital - the costs behind buildings, roads, housing, and their associated repair costs.
• Fees and charges - money collected for a number of services such as parking, hire of facilities, licensing, and waste services.

The Council’s consultation takes the form of an online survey and opened on 16 December 2021 and will close to public responses on 17 January 2022.

All the responses submitted to the Council will inform the final budget proposals, which will then be considered by the full Council in March 2022.

To submit your views on the Council’s budget proposals, you can fill out their online survey here.