Swindon Borough Council should be £4.3m better off thanks to Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves' first budget. 

And there should also be more funding for education provision to children with special needs and disabilities, with the Chancellor announcing an extra £1bn for that.

The leader of Swindon Borough Council, Councillor Jim Robbins and the cabinet member for finance Councillor Kevin Small said they are both pleased with the initial announcement and are keen to see the specific details of what Euclid Street might receive.

Cllr Small said: “In terms of national funding, Swindon tends to get about a third of one per cent.”

In the case of the £1.3bn that works out at around £4.3m, and Cllr Robbins said: “That’s about what we worked it out as well, although it might be closer to  £4.5m. We’ll have to see the final details.”

Part of the general increase includes £600m nationally for adults’ social care. That is one of a top-tier council’s statutory duties, that it must carry out by law.

Cllr Small welcomed the money but added: “There’s more money for homelessness, more money for SEND education, about £3m, and about £1m more for potholes.

“It’s good to see that there’s extra money for some of our non-statutory duties, the other things we provide as a council which are important.

He added: “It’s a change from the days of austerity when the Secretary of State Eric Pickles was always keen to offer up the local government budget for savings.”

Cllr Robbins said: “I thought it was very exciting to have the first ever budget by a woman Chancellor, and she did a lot of setting the scene about the difficult inheritance this government had from the Conservatives, and while there are tax rises, I think there’s a lot of positives, both for individuals and families and local government.

“We are happy about the changes in the right to buy  council houses  and being allowed to keep the receipts from sales: we are looking to improve our council housing stock, retrofitting energy efficiency measures to save on bills, as well as build more social housing.”

Cllr Robbins added: “At the Local Government Association conference last week it was clear that  Angela Rayner and Jim McMahon get it. They want to work with councils and not punish them.”

Not everyone on Swindon Borough Council was as keen on the budget.

The Conservatives group’s deputy leader and shadow cabinet member for finance Councillor Dale Heenan said the implied retention of a five per cent cap on council tax increases meant an average Band D bill could go up from £2,173 this year by £84.49.

That was based on Cllr Small telling his cabinet colleagues last month that the administration is working on an assumed cap on an increase of five per cent in its calculations for next year’s budget.

Cllr Heenan added: “Every penny of this increase in council tax is going to be spent on paying employers’ national insurance, the higher minimum wage and paying interest on the Labour Council's decisions to increase borrowing by more than £59 million.

“We will see no improvement in frontline services. The really sad part is there is no accountability, it is always someone else’s fault.”

He added: “The Institute of Fiscal Studies has confirmed that the increase in taxes on business and landlords will simply be passed to employees, customers and renters, so we all end up paying.“

The borough council will set its budget for the financial year 0224-25 in February, following the finalised settlement of the central government grant.

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